Framed
by ShadowMajin
Summary: An accused detective. A suspicious lawyer. Together, they must search for the truth behind a grisly murder, even if the murderer is one of them.
1. Chapter 1

Aloha, how y'all doing? It's been awhile since I've posted a story. A sad case of missing motivation has a tendency to do that to a fellow and I'm no exception. Also, what ever writing energies I've been mustering has been directed towards Team Dragon that's really put my own writings on the back burner. I've been involved in their Tortured Soul story and the oneshot Demon School of Hard Knocks.

Moving along, this is my Detective-themed entry for SweetestIrony's GohanVidel Week 5.0. Out of all of those entries, this was the one that I first had thoughts of continuing. Having ideas for it right off the bat helped. However, when I held the vote for continuing my GV Week 5 entries, it came in dead last. That saddened me, but since I had ideas for it, I pushed it up to the top of my to-write list. I'll get around to the others ones eventually, don't worry, but until then, enjoy this little story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Dragonball Z.

* * *

Gohan was screwed. Not just any kind of screwed though; he was royally screwed.

Climbing the steps into his office building, the young man sighed in resignation. And the week had held so much promise too. He had just gotten his rent money for the office and had paid off the landlord for the continued use of said office for the next six months. Then he had landed more work, a murder of a young lady who had the unfortunate luck of being on the wrong side of town. Though tragic for the young lady, it was a boon for him.

That was until all signs of the perpetrator for the murder pointed directly at him: Son Gohan, Private Detective Extraordinaire. Okay, he added that last bit to it, but it was still a nice sounding title.

So once it was believed he was a murderer, he had been promptly thrown in jail until he could make bail; that pretty much cost him the rest of the money he had, plus some more, making him very broke at the moment. With every cop staring at him as if he were a leper, Gohan quickly left the station and made his way to his office/home.

Coming to his office door, his name proudly displayed on the tinted glass front, he found the door opened ajar. That was to be expected unfortunately. It was most likely the cops had invited themselves in and searched the place for any evidence that would further link him to the murder.

And as he softly pushed the door open, the hinges squeaking in protest, Gohan saw the place was a mess. Papers were scattered about the floor, his personal affects lying on his desk or on the floor around it. Pictures and diplomas he had accumulated over the years hung from the wall at odd angles. The filing cabinets looked as if someone had gutted them out as most of their contents—the papers mentioned previously—were out and about and the drawers themselves were either tossed haphazardly on the ground, or were hanging out of the cabinets either half way or barely hanging on. Yes, he had been expecting to see this.

What he hadn't expected to see though, was the young woman sitting in one of the chairs in front of his desk.

Blinking in confusion, Gohan couldn't help but scrutinize the lady. She was dressed smartly in a white blouse unbuttoned at the top two holes and a tight black skirt, the skirt reaching down to just below her knee. Her suit jacket was folded on the back of the chair next to her, also black in color. An open brief case sat on the chair as well. As for her non-clothed features, she was a short woman if his eyes weren't deceiving him. Black hair that was tied into a bun, blue eyes that were covered by thin-rimmed glasses, she was definitely attractive, he had to admit. Sitting with her legs crossed and a manila folder in her lap, a hand writing something in it with a pen; she was definitely a woman that could turn heads.

It was such a shame that he could barely communicate with lovely women at all.

Well correction, he could talk with them when it concerned a case. He could always focus his mind on such things. It was just in other settings he made a fool out of himself. And it would be just his luck that this young lady wanted to talk about something other than a case.

It wasn't very long after he had stumbled upon the woman that she looked up, staring at him intently. Gohan couldn't help but sense a negative vibe coming from her, but perhaps it was for the best. It reduced the likelihood of flirting and him embarrassing himself.

"Are you Det. Son Gohan?" she asked, her voice doing its best to remain neutral. Nodding his head in confirmation, she then sighed to herself before setting her folder and pen on his desk. Standing up, she walked to him, her high-heeled shoes clacking on the floor. Holding her hand out to him, albeit reluctantly he couldn't help noticing, she then said "I'm Videl Satan. I work for the Public Defender's office and was chosen to represent you in your murder case."

So she was his court appointed lawyer. Well that made one thing easier for him. Picking out lawyers was always a drag for him. Accepting her hand with his own, he gave her a professional shake and let go. "Uhh, hi Mrs. Satan, pleasure to meet you."

The hardening of her face was all the reaction he got from her, indicating the pleasure was only one sided. Once again, that negative feeling was wafting off of her, though this time Gohan got the feeling it was directed at him. "It's Ms. Satan. Now, we have some business we need to discuss and the sooner we get it done, the sooner I can leave you to…clean up."

Gohan's hand found its way to the back of his head, scratching it; it was a nervous tic he received from his father from who knows how long ago. "Sure." Walking to his desk, he sat in his chair, leaning back in it as he resisted the compulsion to straighten up his desk. "What can I do for you?"

Sitting back in the chair she had previously vacated, Ms. Satan picked up her folder and pen once more and placed the folder back on her recrossed legs, her pen ready to write. "I need your version of how you were implicated in the murder of the victim Erasa Rubba. I'll also need your alibi that proves your 'innocence.'"

Gohan stared at the lady, his eyes narrowing. "You think I killed her, don't you." No need for a question mark there; when it came to making deductions, he was the best in the business.

Gohan watched as Ms. Satan closed her eyes, her face becoming strained, most likely from anger. Opening her eyes again, she focused on the detective. "That doesn't matter, I just need your alibi," she said in strained patience.

Gohan just observed her actions and body language. It was pretty obvious she believed him to be the killer of Ms. Erasa. Though why would she think so and why would she be so bothered by his presence? It was entirely possible she just didn't like him from the moment she saw him. That sort of thing though, occurred throughout a conversation. She wasn't pleased to see him, much less be here, from the very start and probably the moment she heard his name from her boss, so it had to be some other reason. Was it possible she knew the victim? If so, how well? Most likely they were more than acquaintances…

Gohan sighed as he began rubbing his temples with his left hand. "I'm afraid I can't tell you anything. You shouldn't even be here due to your conflict of interest."

That seemed to catch the young lawyer off guard. "W-what are you talking about?"

Yep, his deduction was spot on. "You knew the victim at some point, more than just a passing acquaintance with an occasional greeting I'd assume. Most likely you were a friend with her and you want any sort of justice possible for her murder."

Ms. Satan seemed taken back by the explanation. She recovered quickly though, boring her eyes into him. "Yes, you're correct that I knew Erasa. We lived next door to each other in the same apartment complex and were good friends. And you're right that I want justice for her. But right now, my job is to make sure you receive your day in court with adequate representation."

Gohan cocked an eyebrow. "Once again, you have a conflict of interest, which should immediately dismiss you from representing me. It's one thing to develop a conflict during the case, but it's something else to start out with one. Why not one of the other lawyers at the PD's?"

Ms. Satan looked away for a moment before she muttered. "No one else wanted the case. I got stuck with it by default."

Oh great, he was in so much shit, not even the normally lazy PD office wanted his case. They usually took any case they could get and tried to get it in and out of court as quickly as possible…

Wait a second. The courts didn't just send lawyers, you had to request one. Okay, what was this girl's plot? She was up to something. "Who do you work for, really? The PD doesn't just send lawyers to what ever case that comes along."

Ms Satan stared at him for quite awhile. "You're no ordinary detective, are you?" she finally said.

"I have to know how the system works too, Lady. Now start talking."

"Alright then, the truth: I do work for the PD, but with a high profile case like this, I knew some big law firm would scoop it up for publicity the moment they heard of it. That's not how I want the last images of my friend to be used, as stunts for attention. Plus, the best way to figure out the truth behind her murder is to be involved with it and not find out through the sensational twits from the newspapers. And with everything pointing to you as the perp, I wanted to meet you face-to-face so I know for a fact whom the scum was that killed my friend."

Gohan leaned back into his chair, staring at the lady. "Alright then, take a look. Do I look like a guy that would kill an innocent woman?"

She had a very quick response. "Yes."

Caught off guard, Gohan jerked backwards in surprise, leaning the chair too far back and causing it to tip over. With a loud crash, the detective fell to the ground, lying in a heap of body parts and chair. Dazed, it took awhile for Gohan to recover his faculties, just in time to see Ms. Satan standing in front of his desk, leaning over it to look at him curiously. There didn't seem to be a bit of concern for his welfare in her expression.

"I think I'm starting to have second thoughts," he heard her murmur before sitting back down again. Waiting for him to get back up and pick his chair back up, she said "If you are indeed as innocent as you claim, do you have an alibi?"

Reseating himself, Gohan answered "The victim's death occurred approximately eight days ago. At that time, I was finishing up a case at the Westingham Estate. I had been there for the previous three days and didn't leave until the morning I was informed of Ms. Erasa's death. That morning, I had barely walked into my office when her mother entered and hired me."

Ms. Satan was writing the story down, the notes being shorthand. "And Era—Ms. Erasa's mother and the people at the Westingham Estate can confirm your story?"

Gohan nodded his confirmation.

"Do you have another residence or any means of contacting you?"

"I'll be staying in this office for the most part. If you wish to see me, you or your replacement can come here. But I have been hired to solve this case and I _will_ do just that."

Ms. Satan blinked for a moment. "Replacement? Solve the case?"

"Yes, I'm assuming that it's only a matter of time until someone figures out you shouldn't be representing me. When that is realized, you'll be taken off the case and that will be the end of our association."

Ms. Satan's eyes narrowed at that, her face becoming slightly flushed in anger. "We'll see if that comes to pass. In the meantime, I will guarantee you that you'll have your day in court with the proper level of representation. But if I do confirm you're my friend's killer, I won't hesitate to stab you in the back."

"Said like a true lawyer."

Gohan had to lean to one side as his desk lamp was thrown at his head. The shattering of the window behind him told him he was gonna have to pony up more money to fix his window and buy a new lamp. "I hope you're paying for that."

Ms. Satan was closing her briefcase at that time, clicking the locks in place. A bulging vein was pulsing on her forehead. Perhaps he had gone a little too far with those last couple of remarks. But what could he say, when he was serious he tended to go a bit overboard with how he talked to people. "I will find Ms. Erasa's killer," he said in way of apology.

"Assuming you aren't the killer yourself, of course," she retorted.

Okay, he deserved that one admittedly. "Until we meet again," he offered in farewell.

"It'll only come too soon," Ms. Videl said as she turned her back on him and left. Watching her exit, Gohan instinctively reached for a side drawer that was thankfully somewhat closed. Opening it and reaching his hand in, he brought out a large ball of cotton. Pulling off a couple pieces, he stuffed them into his nose. A woman's swinging backside would do that to him on occasions.

In his line of work, it was always best to be prepared.

* * *

In hindsight, making Videl Gohan's lawyer wasn't the best use of her. Maybe if she came as an intern or assistant out of the blue, it would have worked better. It's just something else I need to consider when writing these mystery stories.


	2. Chapter 2

The Westingham Mansion was a sprawling building, one of the largest residences in the city. It was easily threes stories tall, with a sloped, shingled roof perched on top. The middle of the building arched out in a semi-circle, large columns reaching from ground to the roof, holding it up over the marbled steps and porch sitting in front of the large oak doors. Long wings of the house extended away from the semi-circle until they reached a line of hedge groves that disappeared along the sides of the house. A gravel driveway looped in front of the house, the road fusing with itself into one road and ended at the street, a large metal gate closing it off to the outside world.

Sprawling lawns covered any space of land not occupied by the driveway and house, not to mention gardens and other lawn decorations that were present or hidden behind the house.

Videl found herself standing in front of the steps of this incredible house, looking up at it in wonder. She had been to her own share of large mansions, but this one looked as if it would make those other houses look like hovels. The wealth of the Westingham Family was very well known, but not many were allowed to their estate, at least with the current heads of the house. According to her research, that had something to do with the mistress of the house.

And it was this mistress that had hired her current client, the Detective accused of murdering her friend. She had to admit, the guy was something else. She hadn't heard much of him other than he was quite capable when solving cases. Nowhere did that say he knew the legal system, nor his capacity to connect dots in a short amount of time. It was almost embarrassing for her to have him figure out her ulterior motives within minutes of meeting each other.

But that was neither here nor there. Right now she had to confirm his alibi of residing in this opulent manor. If anything led to the contrary, it would be just another nail in his coffin, confirming his guilt. Squaring her shoulders, she approached the mansions doors, placed her hand on the door knocker, and banged the knocker on the door a couple times. Withdrawing her hand, she waited patiently for her summons to be answered.

It wasn't long before the one of the doors opened, revealing an elderly man dressed smartly in a suit and holding himself primly. A white beard and moustache covered his lower face whereas his head was completely hairless. His aged eyes focused on her for a moment before he asked "May I help you?"

"I am here to see the owners of the estate," Videl answered. "It is in regard to their employment of a Det. Son Gohan."

"Have you made an appointment?" the man asked.

"No, I have not. I do not mean to trouble anyone."

The man paused for a moment. "What does the involvement of the Westinghams have to do with Detective Son, may I ask?"

"It is in concern of a recent crime. I am his representation in the matter and he informed me he was staying here last week."

"One moment Miss." The door closed soon after, leaving Videl standing on the porch. It was several minutes before the door opened, revealing the old man once more. "Right this way, Miss," he said as he held the door wider for her. Nodding her head, Videl ventured into the house, the door shutting behind her.

Immediately, she encountered the foyer of the manor, its polished marble walls and floors spreading out. There was a large stair case at the opposite wall, splitting into two separate staircases about midway, the stairs going in opposite directions. A lush red carpet extended from the doorway and to the stairs, covering the stairs as they climbed upwards. Rich, expensive painting lined the walls, small stone sculptures sitting on top of pylons standing between them. There were a set of doors on each wall, each one leading to a different room or hallway.

Videl couldn't help but feel a pair of eyes on her once she entered. Though a part of her assumed there was someone of the household staff keeping an eye on her from some undisclosed location, another part of her felt the stare coming from behind her. Turning to look, she found the elderly man standing behind her, his eyes flicking up to her face as he held an arm out. "This way," he said.

Looking in the direction of the man's hand, she saw he was pointing to a set of doors and began moving towards them. "So are you the butler?" she asked the man, trying to strike up a conversation.

"Indeed I am," the old man answered as they entered a long hallway. The walls were composed of some expensive wood, Videl wasn't quite sure which. Outside of oak, she wasn't sure what was what. "I am Roshi, but you can call me Hot Steaming Pile of Love if you want."

Videl jerked her head to man and looked at him incredulously. "What did you say?"

"I was only joking," Roshi said, a slight chuckle in his voice. "But if you would really like to call me that, by all means. It's not often I get such an attractive young lady talking to me."

"I can't imagine why," Videl said drily. Her eyes flared up as she noticed Roshi giver her an once-over. How dare this old pervert check her out? Did he always act this way and if so, how did he manage to keep a job, especially for such a wealthy family? She was gonna have to have a word with the person in charge here about this.

Suddenly, the Satan girl felt something touch her rump. Jerking her head back, she found a hand groping her behind, that hand being connected to an arm that led right up to Roshi. On instinct, Videl fired off a punch at the old man's head, slamming it into his face and sending him flying into a wall, a loud banging sound echoing up and down the hallway. Roshi soon crumpled to the floor in a heap, a large bruise appearing in the middle of his face.

"What was that?" a voice called out. A door a little ways down opened, revealing a very beautiful blonde woman. Her blue eyes looked about the hall until they fell on Videl and Roshi. The moment she spotted them, her eyes immediately hardened, which caused Videl to look horrified. Here she was in this woman's house and she had the gall to beat up one of her servants. This definitely did not look good.

Approaching them as her blue dress ruffled about her body, she came to a stop right next to Roshi and gave him a solid kick in the gut. "What the hell did you do this time, old man?" she demanded, much to Videl's surprise. The only thing Roshi managed to make was a gargled response. Turning her sights to Videl, the woman reiterated her question.

"Umm, I'm sorry I hit your butler," Videl immediately apologized.

"I didn't ask for your apology, I asked for why you hit him," the woman said sternly.

"Oh, well, umm." It wasn't very often Videl found herself in the company of such an intimidating woman. In fact, she would have had to really think back to a time where she had acted in such a manner, most likely with her own mother. "Your butler, he uhh…he touched my bottom."

The woman cocked a thin eyebrow at her. "He groped you there?"

"Yes, he did."

Immediately, the woman swung around and gave several more kicks to the old man. "What did I tell you about harassing people? Huh?" she bellowed at Roshi. Growling a bit, she then turned and began walking down the hallway, the sound of her high-heeled shoes clicking on the hard wooden floors. She came to a stop soon after as she turned her head to address Videl. "Are you coming?" she asked. "I was informed you wanted to talk to me."

"Oh, yes," Videl piped up, immediately walking after the woman. The two soon entered the room that the blonde woman had previously exited, revealing a comfortable-looking sitting room. A few couches and chairs were positioned around a coffee table in the middle of the room. Green carpet covered the floor, though gave a wide birth to a small space in front of a fireplace. A cart was positioned near the doorway covered with various bottles of liquors.

"I am the Lady Westingham," the blonde woman introduced once they had taken seats on opposite couches. "And allow me to apologize for the butler's ill-gotten manners. If it wasn't for my husband's insistence, I would have killed the man long ago."

Videl nodded her head in acceptance of the apology. "If you ever get the chance, could you let me know? I would definitely like to help."

A small smile appeared on the woman's striking face. "So tell me, who are you and what is your business here."

Right, to the point then. Pulling out her file for the case from her briefcase and opening it on her lap, Videl straightening out her posture and began "I am Videl Satan, a lawyer in the Public Defender's office. In case you haven't heard, about eight days ago police found the body of Ms. Erasa Rubba and subsequently evidence implicating one Det. Son Gohan."

By this point, the Lady Westingham was frowning, but otherwise didn't give any other sign of emotions. "Now, as his lawyer, Detective Son has told me he stayed at your residence for," here Videl paused as she glanced at her notes, "three days before Ms. Rubba was found. Is that correct?"

"Yes, that is correct," the Lady answered, looking troubled. "When did this crime take place?"

"According to the Detective's alibi, it was the last night of his stay here," Videl answered.

The Lady visibly relaxed upon hearing that. "Then he's not guilty," she declared.

Videl cocked an eyebrow at that. "What makes you say that?"

"If he was here the night of the crime, then he cannot have done it. No one can be in two places at once."

"Not if that person lies about where they claimed to be," Videl retorted.

"Well, Det. Son was at the Westingham Manor like he said. I know because he, my husband, and myself were up until pass midnight."

"And what were you doing awake at that hour of the night?"

"Det. Son was finishing his work for us and we all had a drink to celebrate." A smile formed on her face as she thought about that memory. "He wasn't much of a drinker, I have to say. He would make these really funny faces every time I gave him some liquor. He was too polite to decline what I offered him and I was…a little too tipsy to stop offering."

Videl paused her pen as she made quick notes of the Lady's story. She wasn't too sure how much of this would be needed for her client's defense; though his alibi was starting to look good, as loathed as she was to admit it. "I'm assuming the three of you went to bed following your celebration?"

"Not together," the Lady replied, though if Videl wasn't mistaken, she sounded a bit wistful at that. "The way I was feeling, it would have been interesting to have a ménage à trios."

Videl found herself dropping her pen as she looked at the lady with wide eyes. Although it wasn't unheard of for certain people to have relations like that, to have someone admit to wanting one was astonishing to hear.

That small smile from before appeared on the Lady's face then. "I'm only joking," she assured the girl. "I would have thought the younger generation would have been more open to such jokes."

Feeling dumb, Videl quickly recovered her mind as she bent down to pick up her pen. When she was sitting up again, she then said "I work in a lawyer office so most people are guarded with what they say. I don't usually hear people being so casual with their words."

"Fair enough, I suppose. Do you have any more questions?"

"Yes. Would you mind telling me what sort of work Det. Son was doing for you?"

The Lady paused as she looked towards the doorway. When she returned her gaze, she asked "How much of this will leave these four walls?"

Oh, this was a sensitive issue. She needed to put this woman at ease if she were going to get the answer to her question. "I can assure you that anything that would embarrass you will remain outside of court," she reassured.

"I may want that in writing," the Lady said in total seriousness. "I know Det. Son won't say anything due to the client privileges he offered us. How do I know you won't bring this up later?"

"Lawyer-client privileges?"

"But you're not my lawyer."

"Then just tell me the basics. Don't go into any detail if that makes you comfortable."

That seemed to placate the Lady somewhat. "My husband had lost something of importance to us. We hired Det. Son to find it."

That was it? That…sounded like a pointless use of resources if you asked her. So what if some rich guy had set some expensive object down somewhere and forgot where he put it? That didn't require a detective to find. "Umm, I hope I'm not being too forward when I ask this, but why did you need a detective to find this important object of yours?"

"Because this is a big house and we could have used all of the extra eyes that we could get," a voice said from behind her. Turning to look, Videl found a short man standing by the door with a mass of neatly-combed black hair. He was dressed casually, or at least casually for a man of his stature. He seemed to be in a good humor as his face radiated cheerfulness.

"My husband, Krillen Westingham," the Lady introduced with a gesture of her hand.

"So, who's the girl?" Krillen asked, walking towards his wife and sitting next to her on the couch.

"She's the lawyer for the detective we hired. Apparently he got himself into trouble somehow."

"Really? How did he do that? He always struck me as one of those guys who wouldn't even cross the street in case he would be jaywalking."

At this, the Lady looked to Videl. "What is the Detective in trouble for?" she asked. "I know you mentioned some sort of crime, but I don't recall any of the specifics you went into."

Videl had to bite back her immediate response, that the guy they seemed to hold in such high esteem had killed her friend. After all, Det. Son had managed to figure her out, she didn't want any more people knowing. "He's accused of murdering a young woman, Ms. Erasa Rubba."

"Murder? When?" Krillen exclaimed, clearly caught off guard. For a moment, Videl wondered whether these people had been living under a rock for the last week. It was pretty hard not to have heard of the murder by now.

"As I told your wife, it was about eight days ago. She has clarified that the detective was in your company on the night of the murder and claimed there was no way he could have committed the crime. Do you agree?"

Krillen immediately nodded his head frantically. "Absolutely. That kid wouldn't harm a fly if he could help it."

Hmm, these two seemed to be completely convinced that her client was innocent. Quite a contradiction to the police report she had read before heading to Son's office. Perhaps she needed to get to know her client a little more to make sure she knew exactly who she was defending. "I have been told Det. Son had been in your employ at the time and that the circumstances surrounding it are sensitive to your household. Is this true?"

Krillen's eyes glanced to his wife for a moment, almost fearfully if she weren't mistaken. "That's definitely one way to put it," he said.

"Alright then." Writing something in her notes, Videl looked the couple in the eyes and then asked "If I were to call upon you as character witnesses, would you be willing to stand up for the Detective?"

"Sure, absolutely!" Krillen declared, causing his wife to give him a look of annoyance, one of which he was oblivious to. "We'll do everything we can. Is there anything he needs? Money? Legal council? A bunker he can hide in until this blows over? All he needs to do is ask and it's there."

Videl blinked at that. That was…overwhelming to say the least. "Umm, thank you?" she managed to reply. "I'll…be sure to discuss this over with my client. Umm, I believe that is all I need to discuss with you…"

"You're welcome," the Lady said coolly, beating her excited husband to the punch. "Allow me to show you the way out."

"Show her?" Krillen asked puzzled. "What about Roshi? It's his job to do those sorts of things."

"I believe that old pervert is indisposed of at the moment. His hands seemed to have a mind of their own and they got him into trouble earlier."

"Oh. Okay then."

Videl resisted the urge to stare dumbly at the two. They were a very odd pair for her to comprehend at the moment so it would be in her best interest to get out of there and recover her reason. And she needed to see her client again. She had quite a bit to talk about with him.


	3. Chapter 3

The alleyway had been cordoned off with yellow police tape, the bold black letters clearing stating for people not to cross it. The alleyway itself was dirty, just like any other alley. A dumpster sat near the entrance with various newspaper pages and pieces of cardboard lying about the ground, a couple of overturned garbage cans lying half empty on the ground. Towards the end was a brick wall, creating a dead end. It was at this wall that white tape formed an outline of a person, one that had the person sitting on the ground with their legs extending out from them and their back resting against the wall.

The exact position that Erasa Rubba's body had been found in.

Gohan stood behind the tape and stared at the alley. It was the only thing he could do to be honest, the couple of cops stationed outside the alley had made it quite clear that he could not enter the alleyway. Well, to be honest that was the nice way to say that. There were a few derogatory words laced with that message that Gohan didn't care to repeat.

But that made his job that much harder. If he couldn't investigate the crime scene, how was he going to discover the perpetrator? He had been put on the case by the victim's mother after all and he didn't like not doing his job.

With a sigh, Gohan moved his gaze upward. The sky was overcast, making the day seem that much more gloomy. It was pretty disheartening to tell the truth. Yet there were a couple of things Gohan could do that he was sure the cops here wouldn't let him.

So far Gohan had been able to figure out there were two ways a person could come into this alley: the opening to the street and a door that was not too far away from where the tape outline was. The other building had no such entrance, so if the detective was going to be making any headway here, it would be best if he checked out the building with the only discernable entrance to the crime scene.

Ah yes, his lessons at detective school were paying off.

Walking away from the scene, Gohan made his way to the building's main entrance, finding a large sign above the double doors. _The Devil's Tavern_ was painted into the woodwork, a familiar caricature of a devil with a pitchfork hovering below the lettering. So this place was a bar. How lovely.

Squaring his shoulders, Gohan made his way into the bar, getting only a glance from a very bored bouncer sitting on a stool by the entrance. Upon entering the room, his feet coming to a stop on the hard wood floors, the detective took in the appearance of the dimly lit room. Various advertisements for the beer on tap were placed on the dark brick walls. Polished wooden tables and chairs were scattered out the room with a large bar situated towards the back of the room. A treasure trove of various alcohols were kept back there, either bottled or on tap. From what he knew of the victim, Gohan began to wonder if she had come to this place willingly or if she had ever come through the doors at all.

Due to it being the middle of the day, the place was relatively empty. A couple of the tables had occupants, but the bar itself was completely empty save a couple bartenders chatting with each other behind it. Eyeing the bartenders, Gohan made his way to the bar, making himself comfortable on one of the wooden stools.

Both bartenders immediately noticed his presence, the nearest one approaching him instantly. "What can I get for ya?" he asked gruffly.

He was large man, Gohan noted. Hairy too since his beefy, hairy arms were exposed due to his dark short sleeve shirt. The only bit of color on the shirt was a small red devil identical to the one on the sign outside on the upper part of the shirt. A quick glance to the other bartender, a skinnier guy by the way, confirmed that this was the uniform for the bar. "A club soda," Gohan ordered, his eyes returning to the heavier bartender. The man nodded his head and prepared the drink, placing it in front of him with a small white napkin underneath it. Taking a sip, Gohan eyed the bartenders before clearing his throat.

"Sirs, if you don't mind, could I ask you two a couple questions?" he asked them, getting their attention immediately. Both glanced to each other and shrugged their shoulders, returning their attention to him. "Were either of you two working here last week?"

Both bartenders immediately perked up at that. "You want to know if we were working the night that girl died right?" the larger bartender replied.

With the reaction from both bartenders, Gohan surmised that both of them had been working that very night. The cops had made their rounds here, undoubtedly asking everyone in the bar at the time of their presence at the bar. "I'm guessing you both were working that night," he responded.

Both of them nodded their heads. "Are you a cop or something?" the thinner one asked, his voice coming out much lighter than his co-worker. A younger guy if the detective wasn't mistaken.

"Something like that," Gohan answered as he took a sip of his soda. From the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a camera resting high on one of the walls. Most likely a security camera. "I'm a detective hired by the victim's mother. I'd appreciate anything that you could tell me."

"It was a night like any other," the bigger bartender answered. "We had our usual crowd, the locals as well as a few newbies. Neither one of us went into the alley the whole night."

Gohan nodded his head as he set his glass down. Reaching into his trench coat—a must for any self-respecting detective—he pulled out a picture and showed it to the men. "Have you seen this woman?"

"Umm, that's the back, Sir."

Gohan blinked his eyes as he stared at the photo, a picture of Erasa smiling widely at some family gathering. With his face reddening from embarrassment, he quickly flipped it around.

Both men looked at the picture for a moment before the younger one nodded. "Yeah, I've seen her before. She's a regular here. Always saw her with the owner's daughter."

"How often would you say she came here?"

The young man shrugged. "Once a week I guess. Can't really say how much, but I've seen her enough to recognize her."

"Do you recall if you saw her the night she was killed?"

The man paused. "Yeah," he said, his voice growing with certainty. "Yeah, I saw her that night. She was here by herself and just floated around the room."

"The owner's daughter wasn't with her?"

"Yeah. Heard she was involved with some big case or something with her work."

That caught Gohan's attention. The owner's daughter was a case worker? Police Officer? A lawyer perhaps? And she was friends with the victim. Hmm, circumstantial to be sure, but he was willing to bet a certain someone hadn't told him the full extent of their relationship with the vic. "If I'm correct, there's a doorway to the alley behind the building, yes? Do you recall seeing the girl going to the door at all that night?"

"No, not really," the bartender said, a hand scratching the side of his head. "Well, wait," he paused, his face looking troubled. "I could be seeing things, but I do remember seeing a guy heading towards that door. I'm not sure if that girl was with him, but I think he had someone with him."

Alright, now he was getting somewhere. Even if this wasn't his guy, it might have been someone that was in the alley around the time the crime was being committed and may have seen something. Also, it would definitely give him a timeline of when the crime could have happened. With that, he could definitely prove that he wasn't in the alley that night.

At that Gohan had to repress a sigh. He didn't like having to think not only of the case, but his own legal troubles. While solving the case would definitely prove his innocence, he was going to have to think of two different cases at the same time. He really hoped he wouldn't have to get used to that. "Do you have any idea of when that happened?"

"Not really. But I'm sure it was before four."

Gohan nodded his head at this. It made sense that it would be before four in the morning since most bars were required by law to stop serving alcohol at 2 AM. The bartender probably had spent the last couple hours cleaning up and closing up shop. It also meant he had some sort of time frame now. "Do you mind if I check out the back door?"

The bartenders looked to each other and shrugged their indifference. "Be our guest."

Giving them a small smile, Gohan quickly drained the rest of his soda before placing the glass back down on the bar. Pulling his wallet out, he laid a few bills on bar, enough he was sure to pay his bill and leave a decent tip. Standing up, he headed around the bar and to a small hallway. Other than the door at the end with a glowing EXIT sign above it, there wasn't much back here.

Gohan paused at this, a frown covering his face. For a moment, he felt as if he had been here before. Déjà vu perhaps? Shaking his head to clear his mind, he moved to the door and pushed on it, finding the door staying in place.

Okay, why wasn't this door opening? Looking down at the push bar, Gohan quickly found the lock was in use. Unlocking it, he again pushed the door open, having more success this time. And as he expected, he found himself in the alleyway, the garbage spewed all over the ground and the taped outline to his left.

Yet again, Gohan got the feeling he had seen this before. The only difference was the lack of newspapers and cardboard on the ground and the outline. Hmm, had he been here before?

"Hey, what do you think you're doing!" a voice shouted at him, causing him to turn his head towards the cops at the entrance of the alley. Both were overcoming their surprised and looked as if they were about to come barging over to him.

Going off a hunch, Gohan called out to them. "Do you guys know of any arrests that occurred here in the last couple of weeks?

That seemed to stump the two for a moment. Looking at each other, neither seemed to have the answer to his question. "Never mind, I'll just go check the records at the station," Gohan said as he stepped back into the building, closing the door behind him. Relocking the door, Gohan made his way out of the bar, nodding his head to the bartenders as he left.

He had some research to do.

* * *

His lawyer was waiting for him at his office. For a moment Gohan hoped she hadn't waiting for him long, but seeing as she had an impatient expression on her face, he wasn't going to hold his breath on that. To be honest, he hadn't expected to see her so soon, after all she wasn't even supposed to be handling his case.

"You have a good alibi," were the first words out of her mouth the moment he entered his office. Staring at her for a moment, Gohan had to wonder what she was talking about before it occurred to him that she had gone to make sure he had indeed been where he had said he was.

"So you went to the Westinghams?" he asked as he walked over to his desk, talking off his coat. Draping it on the back of his chair, he then sat down, his seat rotating as he turned to look to her. "I hope they were nice to you."

"It was pleasant," Ms. Satan said flippantly. "They were very forthcoming too. They confirmed that they had hired you and that you were staying at their estate during the time of the murder."

However, if Gohan thought that would have won the girl onto his side, he found he was sorely mistaken. "But that doesn't mean you couldn't have snuck out while they were drunk. So tell me Detective, what did you do that night?"

This was unexpected. "Uhh," he started, trying to get his mind on track. Unfortunately, that just caused his lawyer to narrow her eyes at him in a glare. "I had been working for the Westinghams for the pass couple of days."

"Yes, yes, I already know that," Videl butted in. "I want to know what happened that last night."

"Oh, okay." Shifting in his seat, Gohan tried to make himself as comfortable as possible. "Well, I had been spending most of the day looking for…wait, did they tell you why they hired me?"

An annoyed look covered the young woman's face. "No, they didn't. Get on with it."

"Well, I had found what they had hired me to find and they had wanted to have a celebration. It was late that night if I'm not mistaken, around midnight I think. We had a few drinks and…"

At this, Gohan began to blush. Though he had never been a big drinker, he was very well aware of what alcohol could do to certain people. As it turned out, the Lady Westingham had been in a very special mood and had been making many suggestions to him throughout the night. Some of the things he wasn't sure were physically possible.

"Well? Why did you stop?"

"Because the Lady Westingham…ahhh, she made some comments I rather not repeat."

"You know, you're going to have to tell me what she said," Videl retorted, a scowl growing on her face. "I already interviewed the couple and I need to make sure all three of your stories match up. So spill."

Well, she asked for it. Sighing, Gohan stood up from his chair and leaned over his desk. With a finger, he indicated for her to come closer to him. Huffing her irritation, she set aside her case folder and stood up, leaning towards him over the desk. Moving his head to her ear, Videl tilting her head to accommodate, Gohan began whispering some of the things he recalled the Lady saying to him.

When he pulled his head away from her, Gohan saw the girl's face was bright red, her eyes as wide as dinner plates. Slowly, she turned her face to look at him, dumbstruck. "Is…is any of that…how can someone…"

"I don't know, but I get the feeling she was confident she could pull it off."

Dazed, Ms. Satan hesitantly returned to her seat, still trying to wrap her mind around what she had been told. Gohan also took his seat and remained quiet, letting her gather herself before he continued with his story.

"Umm, uhh," she stuttered out after awhile. "Why don't…what happened after that?"

Gohan leaned back into his seat. "Well, eventually we all went to our bedrooms. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get to sleep before I heard some noises."

"…do they have anything to do with the Westinghams?"

"Yes, I'm afraid they do."

"Then we can skip that," Videl spoke hastily. "So did you ever leave your room at all?"

"Nope. I stayed there until I fell asleep. I'm not really sure how I did that with all the…noise."

It was by now that Gohan felt his side of the story was over and it was time to turn the tables on his lawyer. "So, how long has your father own his bar?"

That caught the girl off guard. "Huh? What are you talking about?"

"You father. He owns the Devil's Tavern, correct?"

Videl stared at him for several moments before she cleared her voice. "I…yes, he does. What does that have to do with anything?"

"It means that your relationship with Ms. Rubba is not casual next door neighbors. You've known each other for a lot longer than that." Gohan narrowed his eyes at her. "Mind telling me the full extent of your relationship with the victim? I would rather know just who I'm going up against here."

Videl was quiet for several moments, her head tilted downward with her eyes focusing on something on the floor. Then she answered, "We grew up together. Best friends since grade school. We would hang out at my father's tavern after school and do our homework. We practically grew up at there. We lost track of each other after high school, but ended up moving into the same apartment complex almost a year ago."

"And I'm guessing you heard about Ms. Rubba's murder through your father," Gohan added. "Is there anything else I should know?"

"No, nothing," she answered, her eyes flicking up to him, unshed tears gathering at her eyes. "But what does my dad owning the tavern have anything to do with her murder?"

Gohan took a deep breath before he said "I need you to request any records from the police concerning any arrests that occurred in the last month. Also, get the report concerning the evidence they have linking me to that alley."

Videl cocked an eyebrow at him. "Changing the subject much? What do those things have anything to do with the case?"

"We'll find out when you get those," Gohan answered. "Also, I'm assuming that your father has security cameras throughout his establishment, right?"

"Yes, of course."

"See if you can't get any of those tapes for the night of Ms. Rubba's murder. Say between the hours of 6 PM and 4 AM."

Videl immediately jotted his requests in her file. "I'm assuming you think Erasa was at the bar the night she was killed. Maybe encountered who ever killed her?"

Gohan gave her a tight smile. "Yep. I'd do the police stuff, but right now me showing up there would have the same effect as walking into a bear's den."

"Fine, as your legal representative, I'll put a request in." Closing her folder, she put it back into her open briefcase, closing it a second later. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Gohan blinked at that. "Tomorrow? What for?"

"It shouldn't be too long to get the information you're requesting. Besides, we have to work on your defense. That is part of my job, you know."


	4. Chapter 4

It was the next morning when Gohan met with Videl. Well, to be more precise, she came to his office with a cardboard box filled with all sorts of papers and folders that the detective could see sticking out of the box and were threatening to fall and spill their contents all over the floor.

"I have those tapes you requested," she said quietly, a tone he was not used to hearing from her. Digging the tapes out, she set them gently on his desk, followed by several folders as well. "And those are all of the police arrests in the last month."

Gohan looked at her, his eyes studying her demure attitude. "Are you okay?"

Videl's unfocused eyes looked to him. "Yeah, why?" she replied, her tone sounding exhausted.

"Well, you're acting…almost nice. To me."

The lawyer's eyes sharpened immediately. "Oh? I can't be nice to you? Is that what you're saying?"

Ah, there was the girl he knew…somewhat knew. There, now everything was right with the world. "Never mind. Thanks for records." With that, he stood up and moved to a door in one of the corners of his office. Opening it, a closet brimming with coats and suits—along with junk that he still wondered how he found and placed in there—revealed itself. Squeezing his upper body into it, he quietly found a small TV, the very thing he was looking for, and pulled it out of the closet. Carrying the TV as he left the closet door wide open, Gohan made his way to his desk and set the box on it, the screen facing towards Videl. Returning to the closet, he searched a bit longer for his VHS player, but eventually found it.

"You've got a lot of crap in there," Videl observed from the desk.

"Tell me about it," Gohan grumbled as he carried the VHS player. "I don't even remember collecting half that stuff, but yet it's in there." Setting the player next to the TV, Gohan then began connecting the two, plugging various wires and plugs into each other and into the wall sockets.

Picking up one of the VHS tapes, Videl fiddled with it in her hands, looking from it to the detective and back. "So do you really think you can find Erasa's murderer on this?"

Gohan sighed at that. "To be honest I'm not expecting to get a visual ID. Someone that's gone to the trouble of framing me isn't going to slip up and let their identity be caught on a security camera for the entire world to see. But I do intend on getting a few measurements, like his height and theoretical weight."

"So you can base it on your own measurements to make sure it's not you," Videl added, her eyes beginning to narrow into a glare.

"Well, I can't solve this case when I'm sitting behind bars," Gohan retorted. "And as much as I know you detest the thought of finding some evidence that may find me innocent, I don't like it either. I'm used to investigating purely on my case, so me having to consider whether I was involved or not is really throwing me off my game."

Videl was quiet for a moment. "Well, so far in your favor you have a solid alibi and two witnesses to say that you were nowhere near the crime scene." A pause. "As your legal advisor, I would recommend subpoenaing them for your trial or at the very least signing them up as potential witnesses."

Finishing the last connection, Gohan turned to her and held his hand out for the tape. "Sign them up, I guess. I rather not have to send out a subpoena; I don't want to trouble them any more than I have to."

Videl handed him the tape. "They already agreed to lend what ever assistance you may need," she brushed off as she pulled another file out of her box, one that Gohan recognized as the one she had been using for his case. "They even mentioned helping out with your legal fees."

A feeling of relief filled Gohan, followed by unease. While it was nice of the Westinghams to offer him the assistance, it really made him uncomfortable to have people willing to help him, monetarily to be specific. His upbringing would demand that he repay their generosity in some form or fashion. "We can figure that out later," he murmured as he turned on the TV and VHS player. Seeing both devices come to life, he then pushed the tape into the VHS player and waited for the tape to play.

A couple moments later the TV flickered until a picture appeared, a black and white scene of the Devil's Tavern playing. The room was filled with customers, everyone ordering drinks, food, or both, talking animatedly with their friends, and such. Looking at the time stamp, Gohan noticed the scene was halfway between nine and ten at night. A slight frown on his face, he looked to Videl and asked "Where's the tape for earlier in the evening?"

"Right there," she pointed at the other tape sitting on his desk. Moving the tape closer to the his tape player, he then picked up one of the police files Videl had retrieved for him and sat down in a chair, opening it to view its contents.

"Umm, what are you doing?"

Looking up, Gohan found Videl staring at him curiously. "Uhh, I'm reading the case files you brought."

"But what about the tape? Shouldn't you be watching for Erasa?"

Gohan glanced to the TV before looking back at her. "Well, she's going to be walking across the screen at some point." Pointing to the screen, he continued "You can see the bar at the top of the screen, right? The door to the alley will be towards the upper right hand corner. So when Erasa shows up, she'll be heading to that point. Considering the number of people there, she won't be able to get there quickly. So, instead of just watching the screen for the next few hours, I can read these files while looking up in the event someone is moving to that corner."

Videl stared at him disapprovingly. "And what if you miss it? You could get caught up in one of the files and miss her moving on-screen. Then we'd have to spend even more time trying to find her."

That was a legitimate argument Gohan had to admit. But he wasn't one to just watch a TV screen for hours on end. He usually ended with a sore bottom that way. "If it concerns you so much, you can watch them." Upon seeing the young woman about to protest, he quickly added "I don't really know how Ms. Erasa looked before her murder, so if she came on screen wearing a hat, I could miss her. Since you were such good friends, you could probably spot her sooner than I would, even if you fast forward through it all."

That seemed to placate the woman…for the moment. "I guess you have a point," she acknowledged. "Fine, you read all of those files. I'll watch for Erasa."

With that out of the way, Gohan began scanning through the file. It quickly became apparent this wasn't the file he was after and put it aside. Reaching to the stack, he picked up another one and repeated the process. For a moment, this one looked liked it would be the case he was after until he reached the part of the arresting officer. That put a quick end to that one.

He was just starting his fourth file when Videl spoke up once more. "There she is," she said with certainty. Looking to the screen, Gohan saw a young woman on screen, hanging onto the arm of an unidentified man. They were standing towards the bottom of the screen, the woman looking very cherry, exuberant even. The film was going at a normal pace, so Gohan assumed his lawyer had ended her fast-forwarding, opting for a normal speed. Glancing to Videl, he saw the dark-haired woman focusing right on the woman.

Setting aside the case file he was on, he stood up from his chair and moved to the other side of his desk. Opening one of the drawers, he removed a file, one with Erasa Rubba written on it. Walking back to his seat, he sat down and opened the file, looking at the pictures of her he had in there. The first photo showed a young woman with short blonde hair, her features identical to the woman on screen. Flipping through a few others, he found a picture of her body lying in the ally, blood darkening the light colored dressed and what appeared to be several bracelets on her arms. Studying the clothes she was in—a dress from what he could make of it—he looked back to the screen and could just about match the dress to the one the woman was wearing. It all looked good to be Ms. Rubba.

By this time Videl's eyes were squinting. "Who is that guy?" she murmured to herself, acting as if Gohan weren't even in the room. Choosing to look at the man she was with, he quickly determined the current shot would not allow them to identify him. He was wearing a bulky jacket for one thing; a fedora covered most of his head as well, preventing any identification of his hair. Since his back was to the camera, that also made looking at his face impossible. The only thing Gohan could say for certain was the man had dark hair, be it black or brown.

Moving closer to the screen, Gohan said "Speed it up a little." Almost immediately the screen began to move faster. For several minutes the couple stayed in that one spot, chatting away with each other. Ms. Rubba seemed to be the more animated of the two as her hands and arms whipped about, either lying on the table to touching the man to brushing some strands of hair from her eyes. The man barely moved much except to rest an arm on the table.

"Geez Erasa, you just had to pick that guy, didn't you?" Videl muttered under his breath. Gohan opted to remain silent. He wasn't too sure if his opinion on the matter would be beneficial.

Eventually, the two began to move towards the upper right corner of the screen, right where Gohan had predicted they would go. Though the man never faced the camera, more of his coat was revealed and Gohan couldn't help but notice that it was a trench coat. Though it was a similar style to the one he wore himself, a trench coat was actually fairly popular nowadays. Still, the fact he wore one and this guy did too would only point more to him as the perpetrator of this crime.

And for all of her innocence, Ms. Rubba seemed to be completely enjoying herself, pressing herself up against the man as one of her bare arms wrapped around his. Not once did they turn around as they disappeared off screen. Immediately after, the tape came to a stop, the time stamp marking it just after midnight.

"Well, at least we know the last time anyone saw her that night," he commented.

Videl glanced to him before her eyes fell to the folder in his lap, particularly the bloody photo he held in his hand. "Is that…"

Gohan looked down to the file before quickly looking back to her, closing the folder as he did so. "Uhh, yeah, this is the case file I have on Ms. Rubba."

Videl looked back at him. "And where would you get a file like that? I thought you couldn't get anything from the police."

"This is my file I gathered when Ms. Rubba's mother hired me."

"Can I look at it?" she questioned. "I think if we compare it to the police file on the case, we might find something that was overlooked."

Gohan looked down to the folder for a second before shrugging his shoulders. "Sure," he said as he handed the folder to her. Almost apprehensively, she took the folder and sat it down on her lap, staring down on it with edgy blue eyes. Seeing this, Gohan began to reach out to the folder. "Perhaps I should do the comparison," he suggested. "Some of the pictures are…graphic."

"No!" Videl shouted, her hands pulling the folder away and holding it out of his reach. Gohan stared at her in surprise, a wild expression being returned from the woman's face. Then in an instant her calm returned as she slowly moved the folder back to her lap, her face softening into something resembling discomfort. "I can handle this," she said softly.

Pulling away, Gohan returned to his previous case file, making sure she saw every action he did so as not to spook her. "You do that then. I'll just go back to what I was doing," he reassured her.

To be honest, one of them really needed to look back at that tape for anything, such as that man coming onto screen at any other time. They could wait to do that though. It wasn't as if these tapes had to be anywhere else at the moment. So going back to his file, again he deduced this wasn't the one he sought and put it into his growing pile of useless case files.

Even as he put his focus onto his task, Gohan couldn't help but hear the stifled gasp from his lawyer as she opened the folder. He did his best to hide the wince that was threatening to cover his face, managing to keep it under control after a few moments. Soon, the only sounds that were being made in the office were the flipping of paper and the ticks his wall clock made as each second passed.

Between the two of them, it was Gohan who made the first discovery. He almost missed it though as he was skimming through the file. Would it have been sad if he had glanced over his own name? Most likely since the report mentioned it right before the words "assisted" and "arrest." Making sure he read what he thought he had, Gohan's eyes came to life as he began to read the case report more thoroughly. The more he read, the more he knew that this was the file he had been looking for.

"Found it," he declared as he stood up, placing the open folder on the desk in front of him. Walking around his desk, he opened up one of the drawers and began digging through it, Videl looking up at him curiously.

"What are you looking for?" she asked as she watched him.

Pulling out a folder, Gohan simply stated "This." Placing the file above the previous one and opening it, he began to explain "I was investigating a case for a parole officer not too long ago. He wanted me to follow a man that was supposedly violating his parole, but the officer could never get anything concrete on him."

"What part of his parole was he violating?"

Gohan was quickly flipping through the pages in the file. "He was restricted from setting foot in any establishment that served alcohol. He was a violent drunk and that got him into trouble—the kind that sends you to jail. As part of his release from prison, he was ordered not to imbibe alcohol or be at any place it was sold without permission from his parole officer. He managed to follow orders but eventually fell back into old habits."

Videl gave him a disproving look. "And this has to do with your case how?"

"Well, the guy was actually smarter than he appeared. Somehow he always tested clean for alcohol consumption; if he was thought to frequent a certain bar, he never showed up. His parole officer began to suspect his parole violation, but could never catch the guy in the act. So he asked me to follow his guy and inform him of any violation. As it turned out, I followed the guy to your dad's tavern and informed the parole officer. He sent in two police officers he was friends with and we arrested the guy. Unfortunately he put up a struggle that ended up with all of us in the alley."

"So you're saying this drunk is the reason why the police suspect you of murder?" Videl asked unimpressed.

Gohan looked up to her. "In a nutshell. The reason I was outed as a suspect was because the police found fingerprints and hairs that matched with me. Any evidence of my presence there would have resulted from this earlier case."

Videl stared at him before looking to the police file concerning Ms. Rubba. Flipping through it, she found the section containing police evidence and scanned it. "This does say they found your fingerprints there," she informed him. "And some hair fibers too. But if what you're saying is true about your parole violator, there would have to be evidence samples from the policemen that helped you."

"Read a little further," Gohan suggested. "Maybe it does mention something about them."

Humoring him, Videl did so. "Hmmm, there's a mention of fingerprints belonging to an Officer Tien Shinhan and an Officer Yamcha…something or another." She frowned at this. "How the heck do you even pronounce that name?"

Gohan shrugged. "Beats me. I just called him Yamcha."

"Okay." A pause. "There's also a mention of hair samples belonging to Yamcha, but none for the Shinhan guy."

Gohan paused for a moment, a picture of the two officers coming to mind. "Tien's bald."

"I guess that would explain that. But why would they pin the murder on you if they also found these guys' prints and hair?"

"Most police assume that they'll contaminate a crime scene just by being there. So any hair or prints belonging to them is immediately discarded, assumed that it was added as they worked the crime scene." Gohan paused at that. "I think it would be safe to assume these two were at the crime scene during the initial investigation."

"Then if what you say is true, we have a couple more witnesses to interview," Videl said, closing the file with a loud slap. "If these officers collaborate with your story, I think we can claim any evidence pointing to you as circumstantial." A sigh left her lips then. "I'm starting to think you really didn't kill Erasa."

So she was starting to come around to his side. That was a relief. It would have been really awkward to have the only person helping him thinking he was a murderer the entire time this case was going on. Straightening his posture, Gohan moved to his office window, stretching his arms out to relieve some tension that had been building between his shoulders all day. His lawyer didn't pay him any mind as she confirmed his claim in the files.

Looking out the window, the detective watched as people walked up and down the street, minding their own business. A man walking his dog, a couple huddling together as they strolled, a couple men standing near a car, one of them holding food as they chatted with each other were among the people he spotted.

A content feeling welled up within Gohan. It was a relief to have his defense forming, one that was looking to be quite solid. Things seemed to be getting better the further he got into the case. If he could get those two police officers onto his side, he was pretty sure he would be able to get through this mess. Tomorrow was going to shape up to be a very interesting day.

* * *

A couple things before I get into the my replies to the anonymous reviewers. The time period for this is right around the time DBZ was being written, which means no DVD players and cell phones were a luxury item instead of an everyday appliance. Take a moment to let that settle in before you wonder how such a world could possibly exist.

As for the police contamination thing concerning Tien and Yamcha, I'm making that up as far as I know. Maybe they do it that way, maybe they don't. I honestly can't tell you either way so I'm saying for this story that it was discarded because police don't murder people. Or at least they get free passes like that. You may begin your laughter now.

To Gabby: Thanks. There's plenty of Gohan sleeves. He's got two of them to use after all.

To Qwerty: Sorry to hear that this isn't your cup of tea. Maybe the next story will be. Now, I don't want to sound like I'm ragging on you, but I would like to talk about the points in your review. Allow me to say first that this is an AU story, meaning it occurs in an alternate universe. That usually changes a lot of what a story and its surrounding world does, just by its nature. A lot AUs that I've seen on this site follow a similar format. For instance, I've seen cop dramas with DBZ characters that follow the character insertions format as you have called them. For these kinds of stories, the way I see it, there needs to be more of a character-focus for these stories rather than following the actual story line of DBZ, if that makes any sense. According to your review, that's something I need to work on, and I thank you for pointing that out. As for the original story part, I guess you could say this would be a better original story, but I still am using the DBZ characters as a template for how this story progresses—though there needs to be more work there. But even then, I could make an original story following the typical Gohan Goes To High School stories; all I'd have to do is just change the character names and maybe the mechanics of how ki is used. Also, I've never been to those original story sites, so I can't really say what I can do there. I'm content right here though, so who knows. Again, I hope I haven't come across as being critical of your view, just trying to explain where I stand in regards to this story and others like it. Thanks for reviewing and telling me how you feel. I appreciate it.


	5. Chapter 5

It was to the sound of knocking that woke Gohan up. With a start, he almost fell off the couch he was lying on. Yes, his office had a couch, but it wasn't used much. Most people were content on sitting by his desk, so when ever he had a late night's work he found the couch to be a much more comfortable option than his desk chair. And ever since he was being investigated, he had found himself sleeping more and more on it.

Wiping the sleep from his eyes, Gohan yawned widely as his brain tried to catch up with his sudden awakening. Another knock at his office door informed him again that there was someone waiting for him. Sluggishly standing up from the couch, he dragged his feet as he approached the door and opened in. On the other side was the increasingly familiar face of Videl, a couple cups of coffee in her hands. Without even waiting for a greeting, she strolled into the office, setting one of the cups down on his desk as she sipped from the other.

Blinking at her, Gohan felt lost as to why she was here so early. "Uhhh, hi. You're here early."

"We have a long day ahead of us," Videl informed him as she sat down in her customary chair. "I've already called the police department to set up a couple of interviews with those two police officers. We're meeting them in an hour so I suggest you make yourself presentable quickly. Also, here's a coffee," she paused to give him a once over, "I suggest you drink it. You look like you just woke up."

"Well, I kinda did."

Videl just ignored him as she sipped from her cup once more. Taking that as a sign that she was done talking, Gohan sighed and moved to his desk, picking up the cup of coffee and sipping from it. Rolling his head to work some of the stiffness out of his neck, he then walked over to the window again, taking another drink of the coffee. Already he could feel his brain starting to come to life, a blessing from the caffeine.

Looking down on the street as he did last night, he watched as people went through their morning routines. A gentleman purchasing a newspaper, a woman hurrying down the street, late for some no appointment no doubt. A large man was getting into a car, someone else already sitting on the passenger side of the car…

Gohan frowned. If he wasn't mistaken, that car was in the same place as last night. In fact, he was pretty sure it was the exact same car. Turning his attention to the man getting into the vehicle, he faintly recognized him as well, though he wasn't one to just assume such a thing. Taking a swig from his coffee, he continued to watch the car, waiting for one of the men to come out of it and allow him a better visual for identification. While it wasn't unusual for people to park in the same place, something odd just struck him about the sight. The car itself was nicer than the other's on the street. And from what he could see of the men in the car, their jackets looked pretty stylish, expensive even.

"What are you staring at?" Videl asked him, annoyance in her tone. "You need to get a change of clothes on already. We don't have time to linger here if we want to get to the station on time."

"There's this car outside," Gohan said.

"So? Don't tell me you're one of those car-obsessed guys that know every detail of a car."

"No, it's nothing like that," he reassured her. "It's just I remember seeing this one car last night with the same men around it. They're sitting in it right now."

"You're starting to sound paranoid, you know."

"Just take a look," Gohan shot back exasperated.

Rolling her eyes, Videl stood up and walked over to the window. It seemed the men in the car were restless at the moment as one of them, a large man with a bowl cut, got out of the car and looked around. As the dark-haired woman looked out the window and caught sight of him, her eyes shot wide open. "Shit!"

The next thing Gohan knew, he had been pushed away from the window and shoved against the wall. Blinking owlishly, he looked to a side as Videl pressed her back to the wall, same as him. With one of her arms stretched out and holding him against the smooth sheetrock, the girl looked as if she were about to have a heart attack. "Umm, mind telling me what's going on?" he asked slowly.

"That's Shugesh," the lawyer girl hissed back in a low voice. "He's one of the guys that works for Vegeta."

Gohan's head draw back. "Vegeta? As in the District Attorney Vegeta?"

"Of course. Who else would I be talking about? This just can't be good. I didn't think he'd take a case like this."

Okay, obviously this new twist was something from Videl's world. Unfortunately, Gohan wasn't caught up with what that world was like, so he had no idea why she was fretting as she was. "Mind telling me why this is working you up?"

Videl jerked her head to look at him disbelievingly. "Because Vegeta is a rock star! When he goes to court, he always leaves with a conviction! You can count on your one hand the number of times he's lost in court and none of those times have been in the last five years!"

Gohan was taken back by that. This case of his had just made a one eighty turn back to bad. "But doesn't the DA always take cases like this?"

"Yeah, but Vegeta usually does the high-profile ones. He leaves the smaller ones to his assistances. I didn't think this case would be such a one, but obviously it is." That made her pause for a moment. "There must be something we're missing. This is just a simple homicide case."

Gohan was beginning to agree with his lawyer for once. From the way she made this DA guy out to be, he wouldn't personally do a case unless it required him. But what part of him being accused of killing some girl in an alleyway was high-profile, he had no clue. "So this Shugesh guy, what does he have to do with Vegeta?"

A sigh came from the girl then. "Vegeta isn't the kind of guy to follow proper legal proceedings. It's been rumored that he has authorized some less than legal means while taking on a case, but he's never been caught in the act. The only thing the Defender's office knows for certain is that when he gathers his information, he usually has Shugesh and his partner Borgos do the dirty work. If they're here, that means they're keeping an eye on you."

A sinking feeling filled Gohan gut. "So they're following me. Which means they've been to your dad's tavern and asked about me." His eyes focused on Videl. "Did you notice them when you got those security tapes?"

Videl shook her head. "No, not that it would matter. We have to turn those over to the DA's office anyway during Discovery."

A sigh ripped from the detective mouth. "Still, if there's even an inkling of truth to what you've said, then that means we need to be very careful with those tapes." Moving forward, Gohan strode over to his desk and collected every video tape he could. Also, he grabbed the relevant files concerning the Devil's Tavern alleyway and placed them with the tapes. When he had everything, he gathered it all into his arms and began moving to an unopened door close to the front door. Shuffling everything into one arm, he opened the door and stepped through it, flicking on a light switch a moment later.

The light revealed a small tiled bathroom with a toilet and sink. It wasn't anything too fancy except for a glass door opposite the bathroom door. As he moved to the glass door, he felt Videl's presence behind. Looking to her and finding her staring back at him curiously, he gave her a small smile before opening the door, revealing a small shower. Oddly enough, there was another glass door on the other side as well. Without hesitating, Gohan moved to the door and pushed it open, revealing an identical bathroom on the other side.

"Where are you going?" Videl asked him, her curiosity getting the best of her.

"My apartment," Gohan answered back nonchalantly. He could only imagine the startled look on her face as he left the new bathroom, coming into a rather homely looking living room, a small kitchen to his right and only being separated from the living room by a long wooden counter. "You can come in if you like," he called back to her as he headed for yet another doorway. This one would be his bedroom and that was the place he was headed.

"I thought you lived some place else?" he heard the lawyer call to him questioningly. By this time, Gohan was dumping the evidence onto his bed. Moving back to the bedroom door, he flicked on another light switch, the room filling with light. Turning around once more, he headed towards a painting of wildflowers, one of his hands rising up to a side of the frame and grabbing it. Pulling it, the painting swung out, revealing a small safe face.

"This building was originally and still is an apartment complex," Gohan told her as he began spinning the dial of the safe lock. "I just rented two consecutive rooms and converted one to an office."

"Wouldn't that mean you'd have to pay double the price though?" Videl questioned. "No offense, but you don't seem like the guy who makes all that much money."

"This part was free. I did my very first case for the landlord and they gave me the place as payment. When I started getting more work though, this entire place was filled completely with files and evidence. I could barely move without tripping over a stack of paperwork. So when the next door neighbors moved out, I offered to pay rent on their unit and they agreed. I did all the renovations myself."

By this point, Gohan finished putting in the combination and grabbed the handle on the safe and turned it. A lock clicked and the detective pulled the door open, revealing a small stack of papers, envelops, and a couple small boxes. Moving over to the tapes and files on his bed, Gohan picked them up and placed them in the safe.

"You must be good with your hands. You did a really good job on the renovations."

"My dad's a carpenter. Does this kind of work all the time," Gohan shrugged. "When I was younger, I worked for him, learned the craft. Didn't expect it to come in handy when I decided to work as a detective, but life's full of surprises."

"So are you," Videl said with an amused tone in her voice. Though he wasn't look at her, he imagined that she realized she made an error in complimenting him and decided to change the subject. "So you're putting all of our evidence in your safe? Aren't you afraid someone could crack it?"

"Not many people know I live right next to my office. Just the landlord, my parents, and now you." Turning to her, he gave her a pleading look. "And if you wouldn't mind, could you keep that to yourself? I rather not want that being public knowledge."

That caused the girl to narrow her eyes at him. "Is there something you're trying to hide?"

"Yeah. Me. I rather not have people have access to me twenty four hours a day. Have you ever had someone knocking at your door at all hours? It sucks. When I leave the office, I don't want to be bothered."

"Uhh, it's not like you get all that much business."

"You ever have a neighbor bang on your door at three in the morning and ask you to look for their television remote?" Upon seeing the girl shake her head, Gohan continued "I've had that happen with three different people. Most of the people in this building think I moved out, but keep an office here. It stops them from asking me for frivolous favors."

"Why don't you just charge them each time they do it? You know, for every minute you spend looking for their remotes."

"Sorry, I can't charge people like that. I'm not a lawyer."

A burst of pain exploded in the back of Gohan's head then, followed by stars shooting around before his eyes. Something had hit him there and the force of it caused his forehead to collide with the top of the safe, causing more pain to flood his brain. Grabbing his head, he shut his eyes and hissed as he tried to cover come the pounding in his head. Ow, that had hurt!

"Remember now, the next time you find yourself wanting to make a crack about lawyers, I'd like you to stop for a moment and consider that I am a lawyer and you're inadvertently insulting me," Videl said casually next to him. Turning his head, he found the girl leaning her back against the wall nonchalantly, not looking the least bit alarmed at his throbbing head.

"That doesn't mean you have to hit me for it," he whined at her as one of his hands began rubbing the sore spot on the back of his head. With his other hand, he clumsily grasped for the safe door until he grabbed it and shut it closed. An audible click was heard, signaling that the safe was locked. Absently, his fingers grasped the lock dial and twisted it, removing any evidence of the final number needed to open it.

"Well, you'd just keep making those comments until I eventually hit you. So instead of waiting for that moment, I decided to cut to the chase and get it over with. Now, we've wasted enough time here and you still need to dress in something more presentable. I'll be waiting in your office while you get dressed, but know that I will leave you behind if I don't see you in ten minutes. Am I clear?"

"Crystal," Gohan muttered.

"Good." Moving forward, Videl left the room as she had said, leaving Gohan all alone. Grumbling, he moved his painting back into its spot and trudged over to his closet. While he would have loved to get a quick shower, he doubted he would have gotten a decent one before he would have to scramble to get dress and make sure his lawyer didn't leave him behind. He'd also be sure to grab a couple of pain killers for his headache. Hopefully it'd be gone by the time he got back to his office.


	6. Chapter 6

The city police station had a gothic look to it. Probably because it was built by a gothic designer who had a thing for gargoyles. Statues of the stone monsters sat at the top of building, another set resting on a ledge that circled the building about halfway up. Dark grey stones made up most of the building aside from the windows. All in all, it gave the center of police power a very foreboding look to it.

That was the least of Videl's worries. As she stood outside the station with her client, she couldn't help but notice that the two of them had been followed by Vegeta's men. Currently the two were parked across the street, staring them down like vultures. Videl had heard many a story from her fellow coworkers at the Public Defender's Office about being stalked by people employed by the infamous District Attorney. Most of them had a hard time sleeping for the following weeks, always expecting to turn around and find someone boring their eyes into them.

It seemed she was the next person to collect such stories.

Next to her, she could feel the nervousness wafting off of Detective Son. That was odd considering the work he had done for the police at certain points in his career. Then again, he did have to reside in their jailhouse upon being accused of murder. She could only imagine the sudden change in behavior towards him, the suspicion and thoughts of revulsion aimed at him instead of the ones of mutual respect. It had to be a disturbing turn of events for him.

"Come on, this needs to get done," she ordered, making her way to the station's doors. The detective was right behind her a moment later. However, it seemed the doors were as far as he would get when two police officers appeared before them.

With their arms crossed over their chests, giving intimidating looks to Gohan, they effectively stopped the two in their tracks. "Murderers aren't welcomed here," one of them spoke snidely.

Videl's eyes narrowed. "I'll have you know, no one has been found guilty of murder as of yet."

The other cop sneered at her. "Who says this piece of garbage ain't guilty?"

"That would be the Court of Law, Officer. It's Innocent until Proven Guilty, not the other way around. I was sure I wouldn't have to explain that to men that are charged with upholding it."

This time both of the officers aimed their revulsion at her. "We know the law better than anyone," the first one said. "And we have the proof to back up the guilt of the scum behind you. You might as well go home and not waste your time on this one. Oh wait," he stopped, feigning a surprised expression, "I forgot, you're a lawyer. That's all you know what to do."

She felt Gohan taking a step away from. Smart guy. However, she wasn't going to resort to violence…yet. "So says the guy that single-handedly keeps the donut shop on 1st Street open. Remind me again, how long does it take you to get your breakfast and actually leave the shop? There's a running pool going that it's at least two hours."

The cop's face went completely red from a mixture of embarrassment and anger. "Now then gentlemen, you have just helped me accomplish my job; you know, wasting time. Now I must be off to waste some of your superiors' time, the guys that don't spend all their time stuffing their faces in the morning. Have a good day."

With a powerful stride, Videl brushed pass the two officers, Gohan trailing meekly behind her. "Are you sure you should have said those things?" he whispered to her. "I don't think antagonizing the police force is such a good idea."

"And what were they going to do? Arrest me?" Videl shot back. "The most they can do right now is sulk with each other and maybe give me a parking ticket. Besides, everyone in town knows those two are all bark and no bite. Just bullies with badges." A thought crossed her mind then. "You've worked with this department before. I thought you would've known that."

"I don't deal with the meter maids," the detective replied deftly.

Videl paused for a moment before giving him a smirk. "Now you're getting it."

If the two cops at the front of the station gave a chilly reception to Gohan, the inside of the station was downright frigid. Cops all over the place stopped what they were doing to glare at the detective, who in turn looked more and more ashamed. Videl had to peek at him once to make sure he didn't have some sort of a scarlet letter on him.

Harsh feelings aside, the two of them had a job to do. Approaching a desk, Videl said "I'm Videl Satan of the Public Defender's Office. My client and I have an appointment with Officers Shinhan and Yamcha."

The cop there gave them a stony look before pointing towards the back of the station. "They're in Interrogation Room #2."

"Thank you." Striding forward with purpose, Videl made her way to the back, taking note of every evil eye aimed at her and Gohan. While this wasn't the first time she had such looks pointed towards her—since she was a defense lawyer after all—it never ceased to amaze her the animosity thrown her way by law enforcement. While there were some that cared very little about her work, there were plenty that saw her as a nuisance to society. That she was responsible for letting out all the bad people they caught into the streets. It seemed it never crossed their minds that everyone deserved a chance to prove their innocence.

Reaching the back, she and the detective quickly found Interrogation Room #2 and entered it. It was a plain, sterile-looking room. There was a table with a couple of chairs situated on opposite sides and a dark wall of glass on one wall—the infamous two-way window police used to watch their suspects as other policemen interrogated them. The room was empty at the moment, so Videl sat down in one of the chairs, pulling out her case file and situating it in front of her. Gohan sat down in the chair next to her and waited patiently.

It wasn't long until two men entered the room, both of them dressed as police officers. Videl couldn't help but focus on one of them, particularly the scars that decorated his face. Part of her was curious as to how he had gotten them, though another part was nervous as to the answer. Working in law enforcement did have the drawback of putting people in danger and it was far likely that those scars were evidence to the man's experience with said danger.

"Hey Det. Son! Long time, no see!" the scarred man exclaimed, a cherry tone in his voice. Videl began to feel like this man was one of those people that were always in a good mood, like nothing could keep him down. That was in contrast to the man next to him who looked as if being dour was a 24/7 job. He did seem to look friendlier when he recognized Gohan though.

"It's good to see you guys," Gohan greeted them, looking the most relax he had been since entering the station. "It's good to see familiar faces."

"I bet so," the scarred man replied, one of his hands moving up to his head and running through his hair. That must be Yamcha if Videl followed Gohan's description. Now that she thought about it, the detective didn't really tell her anything about what these two looked like outside of their hair. Seeing that the other man was bald, she had to assume that was Tien Shinhan. "I was beginning to wonder why everyone was in a bad mood today."

"Who's the girl?" Officer Shinhan asked, the man staring at her.

"Oh! This is my attorney, Ms. Videl Satan," Gohan introduced. "She's from the Public Defender's offices and was picked to oversee my case."

There was a slight narrowing of the eyes with both men, but Videl ignored it. Instead, she said "We'd like to interview the two of you concerning a case you both participated in a week prior to the death of Ms. Erasa Rubba."

Both men looked towards each other confused. "Uhh, what case?" Shinhan asked.

Videl gestured to the unoccupied chairs. "Please sit. This may take awhile."

Shrugging, both men did as instructed, sitting down and giving her their undivided attention. "According to Det. Son, the two of you were at The Devil's Tavern a week before the body of Ms. Rubba was found. Do you recall arresting a man who was in violation of his parole?"

"Yeah, I remember that," Yamcha said. "We were the closest unit to the tavern that night."

"Mind telling me what happened that night?"

"Well, when we got there, Son here was waiting for us at the front door of the tavern. We then went in and informed the guy he was in violation of his parole and that we would be escorting him to the station. He decided to put up a fight and we had to arrest him."

Videl wrote this all down, paraphrasing the entire story in her notes. "According to Det. Son, he, the two of you, and the parole violator ended up in the alleyway behind the tavern, is that correct?"

"It is," Shinhan stated. "We managed to restrain him after several minutes, put him in the squad car, and hauled him in."

"And Det. Son was involved in this scuffled the entire time." She made sure to say that as a statement rather than a question. To show that she knew what she was talking about.

"That would be correct."

"Do you remember much of the state of the alley before and after the scuffle?"

Both men shrugged their shoulders. "Honestly couldn't tell ya," Yamcha admitted. "It was a mess when we left it though."

"So would you say between the four of you in that alley, all four of you touched the ground or walls of the alley with your bare hands?"

"I guess. What does that have to do with anything?"

Videl took in a deep breath at this, mostly to prepare herself for her explanation. "It is believed by Det. Son and I that trace evidence that was linked to him at the crime scene of Ms. Rubba was due to this scuffle you had the previous week."

"Rubba?" Yamcha spoke questioningly. "You mean that blonde journalist?"

"That is correct. As I understand it, there were trace evidence belonging to both of you officers at the scene, but it was written off due to your presence at the Rubba crime scene."

Again, the officers looked at each other, this time confused. "Are you basing the detective's innocence off of that parole case?" Shinhan asked.

"Part of it, but this is the only part that involves the two of you."

"So you want us to testify for you."

"We'd appreciate your cooperation with this matter, but we will issue subpoenas if need be."

"You don't have to threaten them," Gohan said to her.

Videl merely glanced at him. "I'm only issuing prior notice that we intend on using them as witnesses. They should know to expect being called upon to testify in trials by now."

Shinhan leaned back into his chair. "I'm not sure how you intend on using us as witnesses, especially the evidence we collected from the crime scene."

Videl returned her attention to the officer. "I just told you that you'll be rebutting the circumstantial evidence that places my client at the crime scene, specifically any hair fibers or fingerprints found on the walls and ground of the alley."

"Then how would you explain the bloody shirt we found?"

Videl felt the blood in her veins freeze, her heart skipping several beats. Oddly enough, there was also a slight giddy feeling building up as well. "Wh-what? What shirt?"

Yamcha looked at her strangely. "Yeah, a fellow officer found a shirt covered in blood a few blocks away from the crime scene. It had been stuffed into a trash can. The lab matched the blood on the shirt to the victim and there were hair fibers along the collar that belonged to the detective here."

Videl's eyes slowly shifted to Gohan, who looked as pale as a sheet. Her heart began to beat again, her heartbeat rapidly increasing until she could feel it pounding in her chest. "Th-that can't be right. It can't be…" he whispered.

A cold sweat broke across the young woman's body. To think she had almost been convinced by this man. She had known in her gut this guy was guilty, dead to rights. Numbly she began to shift the papers in her file. Faintly she saw the notes she had taken at the Westingham Estate. How much of that was the truth now? "I…umm…were the two of you aware of the detective's presence at the Westingham Manor?" she asked.

Again, the two shrugged. "Not at all."

She could feel another nail being pounded in. Her earlier thoughts of Det. Son sneaking out were becoming more and more plausible; after all, how reliable were two drunken witnesses that were most likely going to drop their support of her client once news of the shirt got out? "I believe that's all I have for—"

"Where were you two the night of the murder?" Det. Son suddenly jumped in.

"On patrol," Yamcha answered.

"Did your patrol take you anywhere near the Devil's Tavern?"

"Well, yeah. That is on our route."

"Do you recall when you were around the tavern?"

Yamcha blew air out of his mouth as he thought. "I'm not sure. 2, maybe 3 in the morning?"

"Can you recall seeing a man in a trench coat with a young woman in a dress about then?"

"Sorry, can't say that I can." Officer Shinhan shook his head as well to indicate he was of the same mind. Det. Son seemed to deflate by that response.

Swallowing, Videl felt like she couldn't breathe. She needed to get out of here, away from…_him_. Gathering up her notes, she stuffed them into her brief case as she stood up. "I thank you gentlemen for your time. Have a good day." With that, she quickly headed for the door, leaving the three men behind.

Stalking through the station, the young woman made her way out of the police station. She wanted out of this place by any means necessary. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to get to her car before the detective caught up with her, grabbing her by the arm to stop her. "Ms. Satan, wait," he said in a desperate tone, sounding as if he had run after her.

Videl immediately jerked her arm away from him. "Stay away from me," she hissed at him, rage covering her face. "Just stay away." Without even looking at him, practically tore the door off her car and climbed in, slamming the door behind her. Placing her briefcase on the passenger side seat, she jammed her key into the ignition and revved the engine to life. Glaring, she turned her sights back to the distraught-looking detective, wanting him to know exactly how she felt at that moment. If it wasn't for that, she would have missed what happened next.

Apparently, Officers Shinhan and Yamcha had followed them out of the station, looking passively at the spectacle. They both approached the detective and stood behind him. Then Yamcha lifted a hand and placed it on the detective's shoulder, giving him what looked like a comforting squeeze. Muffled, she could barely make out him saying "Don wory, this ill all be o'er zoon enough."

Staring at them suspiciously, Videl put the car into drive and drove away.

* * *

Just so y'all know, Yamcha's last line is supposed to be muddle like that. I had forgotten about it and thought I had a whole line of mistakes before I realized that.

To Gabby: It wasn't really a flamer, just someone expressing disinterest. I appreciate the sentiment though, thanks.


	7. Chapter 7

Sorry about the delay with this chapter. My TDS obligations took over the last few days and I haven't had motivation for writing on this story since I posted the last chapter. Seem to have gotten over it now, obviously, and I'll try to have the next update come sooner.

* * *

Gohan entered his office and shut the door quietly. Locking it, he moved over to his window and looked out of it. As if on cue, he watched as the car holding Vegeta's men pulled into a parking spot. Even after the drive from here to the police station and back, those guys were on his trail, just waiting for him to slip up. He should've expected something like this to happen, but it was no less surprising to see it actually happening in action.

After being abandoned by his lawyer, the detective had to hitch a ride back to the office. Thankfully Tien and Yamcha had been courteous enough to lend him that ride. They were both on their way home now to rest up after their night watch, intending to go back out that evening. Since it was midday, Gohan had to get to work. This case had taken a very bad turn for him and he needed to get to the bottom of it quickly before any other bad news came in.

Retrieving security videos and files from his safe, he went back to the spot where Erasa appeared on camera. With a critical eye, he sat and watched the entire scene unfold. He watched as the young woman flirted with the mysterious man; watched as the man appeared to flirt back. Then they left towards the back and that was it. Quickly rewinding it, Gohan watched it again. There had to be something he wasn't seeing in the feed, an expression, suspicious body language, a nervous look about the room, anything that could get him into the scene he was watching.

After reviewing the tape over and over, Gohan could feel his frustration growing. He couldn't find anything that he had missed the first go around. As the tape began to reach the point of Erasa and her companion leaving the room, the detective reached out for the file on the crime scene, opening it to the report and bloody pictures. Scanning the report again, his eyes moved to gaze at the pictures, getting an eyeful of Erasa's slumped, lifeless form. Glancing back to the video, he couldn't help but marvel at the differences between the dead girl in the photos and the vibrant girl on tape. It was almost as if they weren't even the same person. As the blonde placed her arm on the back of the gentleman, Gohan's focused back on the picture and frowned.

"What the?" he spoke as he stared at the picture. Looking back to the television, he noticed the couple was almost screen. Frantically, he lunged for the remote, grabbing it and pressing the pause bottom rapidly. Almost immediately the frame stopped, just in time to keep Erasa's arm in sight. Staring at the arm, Gohan looked to her arm in the photo.

They were different. Erasa's arm on the tape was bare, yet in the photo they were covered in bracelets. It was as if the jewelry had appeared out of thin air, which was impossible. It had to come from somewhere. But seeing as the time of death was right about the time Erasa left the tavern, there was no way she could have gone, put all that jewelry on, come back, and then get killed.

Unless Erasa's wasn't killed there. If that was the case, then it was likely this guy she was with took her somewhere else, killed her, then dumped her body in that alley. Or maybe the man in the video didn't kill her at all and it was someone else. Rewinding the tape, he then paused it at a point where Erasa had a coy expression on her face, staring up at the unidentified man. Looking at her, something started to click in his mind. Erasa's body language, her expressions, they were all very open, unguarded even. Was it possible she knew who this person was? Yeah, she was way too comfortable-looking to be in the presence of a total stranger. This wasn't a guy she had met at a bar randomly.

So was this a date of some sort? Two friends hanging out and having a couple of drinks? Gohan leaned into his chair and thought. He needed to know more of the life of Erasa Rubba. The more he knew, the more he could figure out what happened the night of her murder. Something just wasn't adding up at the moment.

How to find out about her though? One of his links to the girl was completely closed off to him at the moment and he wasn't sure if he would be seeing her any time soon. That meant he needed to go through some of her personal effects. He needed to get into her apartment.

Glancing to the window, Gohan couldn't help but grimace. It'd be a lot easier to get to that apartment without knowing he was being tailed. Any move he made would inevitably lead the prosecution onto the same path. It was likely they'd end up at the same places regardless of method, but Gohan needed a head start.

Looking to the tapes and files, he let out a sigh. It seemed he was going to have to hide this evidence again.

* * *

Gohan had to resist the urge to whistle. It was a habit he had when he was feeling good about himself.

After leaving the office, he had made for a back door at his complex. After making sure it wasn't being watched, he jogged a couple blocks away before hailing a cab. As far as he knew, the DA's men hadn't followed him, so that was one thing that had finally gone his way today. All he had to do was remember to go in the same way he went out and those two cronies would never know he was missing.

The next thing was arriving at Erasa's apartment complex. After speaking with the landlord and explaining his involvement with her case—conveniently omitting that he was the prime suspect—he had managed to get his hands on the woman's room key. This took him to where he was now, walking down her hall after climbing several flights of stairs, the room key firmly in his hand.

"635, 635," he muttered to himself as he looked at the room numbers. So far he was at 628 and 629, meaning he was getting close. Walking pass a few more doors he finally reached the door he desired. As he faced the door, for some reason Gohan got the feeling he was about to trespass upon something private. It was a cold feeling, one he didn't particularly like. Steeling his breath, he inserted the key into the lock and turned it. Upon hearing a clicking sound, Gohan then grabbed the door knob and opened the door, shutting it behind him after he entered the room. It was dark inside, though light seeped through the closed blinds. Walking over to the blinds, he opened them, allowing more light to pour in.

The apartment was a nice place. Comfortable, luxurious even. It was the type of place Gohan wished he could have, but couldn't afford to. Perhaps he should have been a journalist.

Gazing about the apartment, Gohan couldn't find anything that called out for his attention. Moving, he headed to a room, finding it to be the bedroom. Immediately he could make out the shapes of stuffed animals and pillows covering the bed. There were some clothes lying on one end of the bed as well, as if they had been laid out for some future appointment. Moving further into the room, he noticed a dresser with several wooden boxes on it. Various beauty products littered the top as well, but the boxes were what interested Gohan more. Reaching for one, the detective opened it and saw a boatload of jewelry in it.

"Wow, this girl really liked her shiny metals," Gohan commented to himself. Riffling through the contents, it soon became clear to him there wasn't anything missing except a pair of earrings. He'd have to check the file back at his office, but he was sure that missing pair would have been on Erasa's person. Pausing at that thought, Gohan went to check her bracelets, finding a few nice-looking pieces, but nothing that resembled the ones that Erasa wore in the crime scene photos. That only led the detective to one conclusion: she had gotten those bracelets after she had left the club. It seemed he was going to have to look into jewelry stores now.

Making sure the other boxes didn't hold some valuable clue—which they didn't—Gohan left the bedroom, moving back into the main room once more. It was there he noticed a doorway directly across the room from the bedroom. Walking over to it, Gohan entered it and found the room was the same size as the bedroom. In fact, he was willing to wager that this was a two bedroom apartment. He really should have become a journalist.

However, unlike the bedroom, Erasa had a different use for this room. Opting to turn on a light, Gohan found the room to be an office of sorts. A large wooden desk covered with research materials and stakes of paper. One side of the wall had newspaper clippings preserved in picture frames. A quick look identified them as articles written by the blonde woman, ones that she seemed quite proud of.

Turning to look towards the desk, this time he found a small journal lying on top of it. Moving to it, he opened the cover and quickly discovered it was a datebook. Perfect. Flipping through the pages, he eventually came up to the current month and began reading all the appointments on it. Dinner Party 8PM, Deadline, Doctor 3PM, SS JJC 9. That last one made Gohan pause. What the hell did SS JJC mean? Frowning, he found another instance of it, only this one read SS DT 10. It must have been short hand for something, but for the life of him he couldn't figure it out.

Seeing as how Ms Erasa didn't have much use for it now though, it would probably be in his best interest if he kept an eye on this little book. Picking it up, he stuffed it into an inner pocket of his coat. Not quite done with his search, he dug into her desk—at least the drawers that weren't locked for some reason—but found nothing of note. Making to leave the room, it was then he noticed a door off to the side. Most likely this former bedroom's bathroom. There was a sign on it that read DARK ROOM.

* * *

"Videl! Videl!"

Videl came to a stop, letting out an aggrieved sigh. Why of all times did someone want her attention now? No one had bothered her since the police station, which suited her just fine considering what she had found out there. But in the lobby of her apartment complex someone finally had decided "Hey, no one's talked to that girl all day. I need to change that!" It was the last thing she wanted considering all she wanted to do at the moment was devour that pint of ice cream she had at the back of her freezer and go to bed.

Turning around, she found a middle-aged blonde woman hurrying up to her, waving a hand over her head to get her attention. She looked like an overexcited cocker spaniel the way she was bounding up to the dark-haired girl.

So naturally Videl recognized her as Erasa's mother. The excessive energy and the happy-go-lucky attitude were hallmarks of the women in their family. It also didn't hurt that Erasa looked like a younger version of her mother, from their trim figures to their short hairstyles. They even had the same happy blue eyes. The only difference was that Erasa's mother was a little taller and looked more mature—looked being the operative word here. If one didn't know any better, you could've sworn the two were sisters.

"Hey Mrs. Rubba," Videl greeted as the woman closed in on her, giving her a warm smile. "It's good to see you."

The next thing Videl knew, two powerful arms latched onto her, squeezing the life out of her. "Oh Videl! I've missed you sooooooooo much!" Erasa's mom cried out. Videl let out gasping sounds as the air in her lungs was squeezed out of her, her body failing to bring any fresh air in. Those gasping sounds soon became weak cries of pain as her legs began lifting off the floor, her head and shoulders leaning backwards until her feet and head practically touched each other. Videl swore she heard—and felt, can't forget felt—her bones groan and creak from the pressure, making her wonder if her back would snap in two. "How have you been, my sweet girl?"

"Need…air…"

"What dear? Speak up. I couldn't quite hear you."

"…air…dying…help…"

Erasa's mom let go of her, causing Videl to fall into a heap on the floor. Placing her hands on her hips, the older woman looked down on the semi-dying girl with a perplexed expression on her face. "Is something wrong, Videl? You don't look too well."

No…frigging…duh. Videl sprawled herself on the floor, wondering if she needed to go visit a doctor or something. Damage to the spinal column was a serious matter after all. Eventually, she pushed herself back onto her feet, slightly thankful she hadn't been paralyzed by that hug—after all that would have been utterly embarrassing—and looked Erasa's mother in the eye. "I'm sorry. I wasn't ready for one of your hugs."

"Oh poor baby! I'm soooo sorry! Here, let me give you a hug to make the pain go away!"

Videl's arms shot out just in time to grab Erasa's mom's arms in midair, stopping her in mid-lunge. "No, that's alright. You can hug me later."

"Oh, you're just being shy," the woman gushed, pulling her arms back much to Videl's relief.

"So what are you doing here?" she asked the mother. It wasn't often she saw Erasa's mother in the building. That was probably a good thing since getting the woman behind the wheel of any car was paramount to giving a five year old a gun—someone was going to end up getting maimed, fall into a vegetative state, or flat out killed, not necessary in that order.

For a fleeting moment, Videl wondered how much collateral damage had been done today.

"Oh, I'm just hear to pick up some of Erasa's things," the mother said casually. Then in a stunning reversal, tears erupted from the woman's eyes as she wailed loudly. "My poor baby! Why did she have to die? Why? Why!" People were stopping in their tracks to stare at the woman as she cried.

"I'm so sorry about Erasa," Videl spoke, trying to calm the woman down. "But don't you worry, everyone is working to bring her killer to justice."

That seemed to quiet the woman instantly. With a handkerchief in hand—who knows where she had picked that up from—she dabbed the cloth by her eyes to clean up her mascara-ruined eye make-up. "Thank you Videl, everyone's been so kind to me. I don't know where I'd be without everyone's support." Another flood of tears began building up around her eyes again. "I'm barely able to handle everything as it is."

Feeling she might regret this in the morning, Videl leaned towards the woman and held her in her arms. Erasa's mother latched onto her, though surprisingly without the force she had used earlier. A few muffled sobs later and the two parted.

"So, shall we go up?" Videl asked, leading the two of them to the stairs.

"Oh, that would just be dandy."

"Do you need to get the key from the desk?"

"Oh no, I have Erasa's spare. She gave it to me the last time I visited."

"Then allow me to lead the way."

* * *

Gohan stared at the closed door. So Erasa had a private dark room. Why hadn't he known she was into photography? And why would she want to produce photos herself instead of taking it to a store? She never struck him as someone that would gladly do extra work. Looking to the office door, he closed it and then turned the room light off, shrouding himself in darkness. If he was going to look in this dark room, it would be best to minimize any source of light that could enter it. There could be developing photos in there and it wouldn't do any good to ruin them.

Opening the dark room door, he quickly slipped inside and shut the door behind him. It took him a couple minutes to find a light switch, but when he did the room was flooded with a dim red glow. The bathroom itself was like any other bathroom he had been in—a tiled floor, a sink and toilet, a corner devoted for a shower, and a porcelain bathtub. However, laundry lines crossed the room from wall to wall, several photos hanging from the lines by laundry clips. Stacked by the toilet were jugs of chemicals, two of them being labeled FIXER and DEVELOPER. He couldn't see the others at the moment, but Gohan was willing to bet they were other chemicals needed for developing photos. Looking to the bathtub, he found it had a low level of water in it, a couple pieces of photography paper floating on the surface. Looking around, Gohan found a box of gloves on the sink, a pair of thongs resting in the bowl. Grabbing the thongs, he carefully picked the photos up and wiggled them, letting the excess water drip off of them. Hanging them on the nearest open space on a clothes line, he stared at them, waiting for their images to show.

It was only a couple seconds later that it occurred to him that the photos may not be useable. They had been lying in that tub for over a week at the least. He'd just look at the other pictures before giving them another opportunity to present what was on them.

Take a couple steps over to the already developed photos, Gohan looked at their images. A second later, his eyes widened as his face paled.

What the hell was this?

* * *

To Gabby: And here's the next one. Hope you enjoyed it!

For anyone here who is familiar with Team Dragon Star, you may recognize the scene with Videl and Erasa's mother. Hope y'all got a kick out of that scene in its entirety.


	8. Chapter 8

When I was writing this, I was tore between getting Gohan caught and letting him escape unharmed. So I used one of my lifelines and phoned a friend, that friend being Lilly-Sama. She picked one of those options and I went with it. So a big thanks to Lilly for helping me out on it.

* * *

Erasa's mother inserted the key to the door and twisted it. Videl had been expecting to hear the lock click, but frowned when she didn't. "That was easy," Erasa's mother remarked, thinking nothing of it. She then turned the doorknob and pushed it open, revealing Erasa's apartment. An uneasy feeling welled up within Videl's gut. Something wasn't right about this.

Walking into the apartment like she owned it, Erasa's mom flicked on the lights and marched onto Erasa's bedroom. Entering as well and closing the door behind her, Videl looked over the main room, seeing it exactly how it had always been. Faintly hearing humming coming from the bedroom, Videl strolled around the room. Her eyes stopped by one of the windows though. There were two windows in this room and one of them had the blinds opened, the other closed.

The Erasa she knew never left one window blind open and the other closed; they were either opened at the same time or not at all. It was practically an OCD. Someone had been here. Or was here. That thought caused Videl to freeze. If there was someone here, she and Mrs. Rubba needed to get out of there. There was no telling who it could be and what they might do if that person caught sight of the two women.

Videl made to go right to the bedroom when something made her stop. Slowly turning around, she saw the closed door to the room that Erasa used as her office. Erasa _never_ closed that door. As quickly and quietly as she could, Videl went into Erasa's kitchen and grabbed the first thing she saw. That turned out to be a frying pan. She then moved to the office door, pressing herself against the wall next to it and reached out for the door knob.

Steeling her nerves, Videl twisted the knob and swung the door open, leaping into the room holding the frying pan high. The only thing she found was an empty room, something that made Videl sigh in relief. Switching on the light, she made a cursory look around the room, making sure nothing was out of place or rummaged through. Thankfully the place looked just the way she remembered it: organized and clean. The complete opposite of the state Gohan's office had been when they first met.

That thought immediately soured Videl's mood. If it wasn't for him, she and Erasa's mother wouldn't even be here and she wouldn't be paranoid about intruders. It made her sick to her stomach that she had willingly taken the job to represent the guy too. She would do her best to represent him of course—she refused to do substandard work ever; that sort of thing would just leave a bad taste in her mouth—and she'd hate it every second she was involved. The day she was done with the guy could only come too soon.

Growling to herself, she turned to leave the office, but then noticed Erasa's Dark Room. It had only been in the last year that the blonde had converted that bathroom to her private photography development lab. Said that she enjoyed doing the development herself after awhile, which shocked Videl. Erasa had never been one to go out of her way to do extra work unless it involved one of her stories.

Staring at the door, Videl couldn't help but wonder what pictures she had left hanging in the room. Moving over to the door, she reached out her hand and grasped the door knob. With a twist, she opened the door and walked in.

At least, that's what she had intended to do. Instead of opening, the door knob barely turned at all, signally that it was locked. Some disappointment welled up in her at that. She had really been curious as to what Erasa had been developing in the last couple of weeks. Now she'd have to get Erasa's keys for the door in order to open it and that was most likely sitting in the evidence locker at the police station. Anything that had been on her person when she had been found would have been collected and put into a bag or box somewhere. It was going to be a hassle just to get access to it.

Letting go of the door knob, Videl turned and left the room, switching the lights off as she did. Her earlier thoughts of an intruder were beginning to diminish, but she'd cast that thought to the side after she checked the other side of the apartment. While it sucked to know someone had been digging around in her friend's belongings, at least the perp wouldn't be here to cause more unnecessary pain.

* * *

Gohan walked down the hall of his residence building, a long overdue sigh brushing passed his lips. Today had somehow added several hours to it without letting him know, causing it to drag out ever so exhaustingly. What he wouldn't give to be over with it already.

After gathering up all of Erasa's pictures and stuffing them into a large envelop he dug out of her desk, Gohan had just been ready to leave when he heard two feminine voices enter the apartment.

Not taking the chance at getting caught somewhere he most likely wasn't welcomed in, he had hurried into the Dark Room, made sure the red light was off, and locked himself in. It turned out to be a wise decision as he heard someone barge into the office room and then try to get into the Dark Room. Gohan couldn't begin to explain how shot his nerves were when he watched the door knob rattle as someone tried to get in. It was a good thing that room was formally a bathroom because he had strongly felt he was going to use the toilet for its intended purpose.

Once he was sure he was in the clear, he had promptly left the apartment complex and made it back to his own, making sure to enter it from the back way. Well to be more precise, he had nearly walked around the corner of his building and into plain sight of his watchers before it had hit him he needed to find another way in.

So here he was, coming up to his office door and strongly considering whether he should just shout to the world "I'm done!" and collapse on the nearest appealing-looking piece of furniture to sleep on.

As he grabbed onto the door knob, Gohan found himself pushing the door open slightly, causing him to blink owlishly. Had he not closed his door behind him adequately? No, no he always did. Frowning, he slowly pushed the door the rest of the way open, the squeaking of the hinges sounding louder than usual. Staring into his office, he found nothing out of place—a welcomed sight considering the last time someone had been in his office without his supervision. Slowly walking in, he searched for any sign of the intruder, his paranoia growing more intense with each passing second.

That was when he heard the muffled sound of a toilet flushing, causing the detective to jerk his head to the bathroom door, his eyes boring holes into the wooden surface as he awaited to emergence of his unexpected guest.

He ended up waiting longer than he really wanted to as this guest took their time washing their hands. Gohan could hear the splashing of running water and the longer it went, the more his anticipation gnawed on him. It didn't occur to him to just cut to the chase and open the door, but he blamed it on his nerves. One unexpected tense moment had rendered any useable brains cells he had for the day useless.

Finally, the door opened to reveal a young man with shaggy black hair. He was drying his hands off with a towel when he caught sight of Gohan, coming to a stop immediately. Then with a wide smile, he shouted exuberantly "Gohan! You're here!"

Gohan let out the breath he seemed to be holding. He recognized this trespasser alright. "Hey Goten. Nice to see you."

"I decide to give my most favorite brother a surprise visit and all you can do is say 'nice to see you'?" Goten tsked. "Really Brother, I expected better manners out of you."

Gohan sighed. "Today's been a very long day. Maybe later." With that, he walked over to his desk chair and collapsed in it, keeping his coat on despite the fact he was starting to feel a little too warm. "So what brings you here?"

"Like I said, I wanted to see you." Goten walked over to one of the chairs and sat down on it, making himself quite comfortable. "How about you? What's up?"

Gohan cocked an eyebrow at him. "You haven't heard?"

"Heard what? I just got here."

Another sigh left Gohan's lips. He seemed to be doing that a lot lately. Oh well, it was best to get his out of the way before Goten stumbled into it. "Apparently half the city thinks I'm a murderer."

Goten stared at him disbelievingly. "You? The guy that lectured me on the necessity of insects in the world so that I wouldn't kill them? You must be joking."

"Afraid not."

"Oh…I'm sorry Gohan." Goten looked very troubled by that fact. The younger boy had always looked up to Gohan as some sort of idol, above reproach, perfect. In some ways he still thought that way. He never took it well when someone or something did anything to tear Gohan down. "So what are you doing about it?"

"Well, as ironic as it could ever be, I've been hired to solve the case of the murder I've been accused of," Gohan informed him. "So as of right now, I'm out to find the real killer."

Goten was silent for a moment before he said "Coooooool. That's so awesome." Then a thought hit him, making the young boy giddy. "Can I help? Huh, huh? Can I? Can I?"

On instinct, Gohan had "No" ready to leap from his mouth when he stopped himself. As of right now, his number of allies was very, very low. In fact, he was pretty sure the freezing point of water was higher than his list. He couldn't afford to turn away help, especially from someone that he could count on to be loyal. He'd have to figure out what exactly Goten could do, but now wasn't the time to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"You know, I think you can." At that, Goten looked as if he were about to burst from glee. "I need you to get caught up to speed on this case. I'll need you to read the case files first. After that I'll tell you what I've found so far." Getting up, Gohan headed for the place he hid the files. The sooner Goten was caught up, the better. And while his brother was busy with it, he had a couple of calls to make.

* * *

"You know, I feel really sorry for this girl," Goten said as he closed the file. This caused Gohan to look away from the date book he had been reading through. "Getting stabbed and having her neck cut opened must've hurt."

"Not the best way to go," Gohan agreed.

"So, what have you done for your investigation?"

Standing up, Gohan moved to the television and turned it on. The image of Erasa with her arm around the unidentified man slowly faded in. Reaching for the file, he removed the picture of her body and handed it to Gohan. "See anything that stands out?"

Goten repeatedly looked from the picture to the screen, doing his best to find something, anything. Ultimately, he sighed and said dejectedly "No, I can't."

Gohan then pointed to the arm on the screen and then the one in the picture. "She has no jewelry on her arms in his video, but she's later found with jewelry on."

Giving another look, Goten's eyes then lit up. "You're right! So…what does this mean?"

"It means the time of death in the police report is incorrect. The forensic techs estimated the time of death around 12:30 AM. The video clearly shows Erasa leaving this bar a little after midnight. But in order for her to get that jewelry, she had to leave the area."

"Couldn't that guy have given her the jewelry in the alley and then kill her?"

"Why bother? If he was going to kill her, he would have done just that and not bother putting some bracelets on her. No, the two of them left and who ever killed Erasa did it somewhere else and dumped her body there."

"So why there though? Why not hide the body or get rid of it all together?"

"Why would anyone put a body out in the open? Either they're not afraid of the consequences, figure they'll never be caught for it, to send a message to someone, or," here Gohan sighed, "or you use it to pin the blame on someone else."

Goten's head jerked up. "But why you?"

"Goten, I'm a detective. I make my living putting bad people in jail. Those aren't the most forgiving people around."

"So you think someone wants revenge on you? Do you have anyone specific?"

"As a matter of fact," here Gohan picked up a file lying on his desk, "I might have someone in mind. Here's your first job: I want you to find out all you can on this guy. Where he was born, where he lives, his job history, every pet he's ever had, everything."

Goten saluted him before taking the file. "You can count on me."

Gohan gave him a small smile. "Goten, I get the feeling you're the only person I can count on right now."

Goten gulped at that. He tried to say something to that, but was interrupted as a yawn took over his speaking ability. Gohan chuckled at that. "I guess we're gonna have to put your mission on hold until morning."

Goten grinned cheekily at him, one of his hands moving to the back of his head and scratching it. "Yeah, I guess so. Should I go to your apartment?"

Gohan shrugged. "If you want. I've been spending all my time here since I took on the case. The couch is comfy enough."

His brother yawned again. "If that's good enough for you, it is for me." Moving over to the couch, he fell onto it and made himself comfortable. "How long do you intend on staying up?"

"For awhile longer. There are a couple things I'm looking into and I want to make as much progress as I can. You get some sleep now. Tomorrow's going to be a busy day for you."

"Okay. G'night Gohan."

Gohan returned to his chair and sat in it, turning his attention back to the datebook. He had a piece of paper and a pen next to it, the letters SS and some combinations of letters and numbers following them written on the paper. These initials, or so Gohan thought, were littered throughout the book. He was starting to think it had something to do with Erasa's job as a reporter, but he wasn't too sure about it. While he wasn't about to go assuming that was correct, he felt he wasn't too far off the mark with that thought.

The thought of going to her place of work, while a likely source to interpret these initials, lacked very little appeal. Facing a whole building of Erasa's peers who thought along the lines of his lawyer—he had seen the headlines for the last week and everyone one of them called for his head—was not his idea of a good time. Yet it was the only place he could possibly consider and a daunting one at that.

Well, he was just going to have to suck it up. The worst they could do was tell him no and to burn in hell. The best case scenario had someone there telling him what he wanted to know, then tell him to burn in hell.

Yeah, he had some very optimistic thoughts there.


	9. Chapter 9

Gohan and Goten didn't notice when Officer Yamcha left. It had been a pleasant visit, not to mention productive. The officer had dropped by that morning to deliver a few photos Gohan had requested and was off to continue his job. Neither Son boy noticed his departure, totally engrossed with the photos.

One of them was a picture of the bracelet Erasa wore the night of her murder. Surprisingly, it was one long piece of jewelry, a long chain of silver bands connected by tiny little chains, allowing for there to be space between each band. It could have easily covered a young woman's forearm, or so Gohan thought.

"I don't think I've ever seen jewelry like this," Goten commented after awhile. "Looks complicated."

"That may be good news," Gohan replied. "A piece like this would be so rare that anyone that's seen it would remember it."

"So who are you hoping for to remember this thing?"

"The creator if not the employees of the jewelry shop that it was purchased in. If we can find the store this was sold at, we might be able to get a description of the man who gave it to Erasa. We can then work on finding out how Erasa came into possession of it. Most likely the man who killed her came into contact with it at some point."

Goten looked to Gohan questioning. "Why not have someone check for fingerprints on it? Surely there's something on it."

"I doubt it. The people we're after are meticulous in their preparation. They're not going to leave behind any evidence we can use to identify them."

"Them? People? Are we looking for multiple people or just one person?"

Gohan paused at that. "I must not be getting any sleep," he muttered quickly. "I spent most of the night on those blasted codes I found in Erasa's datebook and I couldn't make heads or tails of it at all."

"Then perhaps I should get us some coffee. You can take a quick nap or something until I get back."

That was quite a tempting offer. Gohan had half a mind to accept it until the office door swung open. "_Gooooooooooooooood Morning!_" a way too chipper voice declared, startling the two young men. Turning around, those saw a young blonde woman looking at them with a large smile plastered on her face, a large purse dangling at her side as the strap clung to her shoulder.

"Oh, hey Mrs. Rubba," Gohan greeted, a bit wary. Considering how everyone but him seemed to know of the evidence against him, he was expecting to see the woman to treat him just like everyone else had.

"And how's my favorite detective?" Mrs. Rubba asked, her bright eyes staring into his, obviously hoping for some good news concerning a certain case.

"Busy," Gohan answered. "We've got a couple of leads we're following up on."

"Ooooooh, that is such great news! Thank you soooooo much, Mr. Son! I can't thank you enough!"

Gohan gave her a weak smile. He had almost forgotten how lively Erasa's mother was—almost as lively as her daughter. It made him want to find the guy responsible for her daughter's death even more than he already did. She was just that kind of person you didn't want to disappoint.

"Rubba," Goten said softly. "Hey, is this the mother of that girl who—"

Immediately, Gohan clamped his hand on his brother's mouth, stopping him from speaking. Well to be more specific, he stopped Goten from saying something intelligible as he kept talking, but his hand muffled every sound his brother made. Gohan didn't really want to know what the younger Son was going to say—there was just so many ways that sentence could have ended and many of them not good.

"This is the woman who we're helping," he amended, glancing to the mother. She didn't seem the least bit perturbed by their antics, watching them instead with chipper eyes. Perhaps that was something to be thankful for. That was until her eyes focused on Goten.

"Ooooooh! And who is this cutie?" she squealed.

With a slight wince, Gohan moved his hand from his brother's mouth and put it on his back, pushing him towards the woman. "Allow me to introduce my brother, Goten. He's going to help me on your daughter's case."

"He is? That's so sweet of him!" The next thing either man knew, Erasa's mother embraced Goten, pinning his arms to his sides. Goten looked at her awkwardly for a moment before his face began twisting into one of pain. Gohan watched comically as he saw Goten's face turn blue as his cheeks began puffing out. Was…was he trying to hold his breath? And were those audible pops and cracks coming from the boy's body? Oh god, Goten's eyes were rolling into his head.

"Umm, is there something we can help you with?" Gohan asked her, trying to get her attention.

"Oh yes!" Immediately, Erasa's mother dropped Goten to the floor, the young boy letting out a pained gasp. "I was just dropping in to see how far you've gotten."

Giving his brother a worried look, Gohan slowly began his report. "We're making some headway, but it's been slow going." Without looking, one of his hands went to the desk and began to search clumsily for one of the photos lying on its surface. When he found it, he picked it up and showed it to the woman. "This is one of our leads. We're trying to track down where this piece of jewelry came from. Would you know anything about it?"

"Umm, I'm not sure. All I see is white."

Gohan blinked before realizing he was holding the picture backwards. Again. Flipping it around, he then stated "How about now?"

Mrs. Rubba stared at the picture for a moment before saying "I would never wear that. Too gaudy for my tastes, but Erasa would have…liked…it." A melancholy look appeared on her face as tears began building around her eyes. "Oh my poor baby!"

Horrified looks crossed the Son boys' faces. Oh god no, not a crying woman! Neither one knew how to talk to one, much less calm it down. It wasn't like there was an Off Button on it. "Please Mrs. Rubba," Gohan pleaded. "Please don't cry."

A loud sob rang about the office, causing both boys to flinch. Well, that wasn't the way to stop the woman from crying.

"We're doing all we can to help your dead daughter," Goten tried to comfort.

An even louder cry rang out.

"For the love of God, please stop crying!"

The wailing grew deafening by that point, but then magically went silent, Mrs. Rubba sniveling as she got herself under control. "I-I'm s-s-sooooo sorry. I-I can't hardly h-help myself," she apologized.

The Son boys looked to each other then back to the woman. "We understand," Gohan said cautiously.

As if she hadn't been bawling her eyes out five seconds early, Mrs. Rubba looked at the two of them with a bright smile. "So is there anything I can do to help you boys? Do you need more money? A sandwich? How about your laundry done? I want to help in anyway I can!"

"That's alright, Mrs. Rubba," Goten replied with a small smile. "We have everything under control.

The snivels came back immediately. "You boys are so s-s-sweet," the woman wept, on the verge of tears again. Gohan and Goten were horrified once more. Not again, they couldn't take another round of tears!

"Actually," Gohan spoke up panicking, spinning around as his hands swept across his desk for some piece of paper or something he could use to distract the woman. As it turned out, it was a photo of Erasa's body. Pausing for a moment, Gohan set the picture aside and searched again. Showing a woman on the verge of a breakdown the image of her deceased child was not the way to stop her from flooding the room with tears. He ended up settling on a photo of the alley, picking it up and holding it out to the woman. "Do you know where this place is?" he asked. While he knew exactly where it was, he was desperate to distract the mourning mother.

Erasa's mother held herself together as she stared at the photo. Shaking her head, she sighed "No, I don't." Looking at it again, an analytical look crossed her face. "Who ever took the photo isn't very good."

"Uh, okay?" Gohan wasn't too sure what to make of that. "Not sure what you mean."

"Sweetie, when you've worked in journalism as long as I have, you see millions of the best photos you could ever see."

The young man perked his head up at that. "You were a journalist?"

"Thirty four years," the woman proclaimed proudly.

Immediately, Gohan found the list of letters he had gotten from Erasa's datebook. "One more thing; I found these initials in your daughter's datebook and I have no idea what they represent. Do you think you could take a look and let me know what they mean?"

Mrs. Rubba stared at him. "How did you get Erasa's datebook?"

Gohan hesitated for a moment. Would it be wise to tell this woman he had been at her daughter's home? She could consider it a breach of privacy and react negatively. A bubble of dark humor welled up in the young man. As if she wouldn't react that way regardless of his answer. "I stopped by your daughter's apartment to see if she left any clues as to why she was in that part of the city that night. See if she was meeting someone, like a date or a friend."

The blonde woman continued to stare at him for a moment before nodding her head in approval, a smile appearing on her face. "I knew I hired the right person for this! I wouldn't have thought of that!"

Again, Gohan found himself pausing. This woman was a journalist right? Shouldn't that thought have crossed her mind? "Umm, which area of journalism did you work for?"

"Well, I did the Dear Abby column for three years, then I moved into movie reviews, and then I was tracking down celebrities."

Goten's face fell upon hearing that. Gohan would've followed his example, but because he was in Mrs. Rubba's direct line of sight, he kept his expression as neutral as he could. This woman was a regular on the gossip pages, which meant she was pretty much useless with the investigation.. No wonder she hadn't thought of his tactic. The odds that she could provide him any relevant information considering this list were growing against him. Still, it wasn't like it would hurt to show her the initials. "Could you just take a look at these letters," he held the page to her.

Mrs. Rubba took the sheet and gave it a second's glance. "Oh, these are Erasa's sources," she said casually.

Sources? "How did you know that," Gohan blurted out.

"Because Erasa used my system." Mrs. Rubba held the list out to him, pointing a manicured finger at the letters on top. "See those S's? They stand for Sensitive Source. The next letters are the place she met them at."

Gohan was tempted to ask why the woman would need sources, considering her line of work, but it occurred to him that even she needed to know certain people close to her targets. A maid, a gardener, an awards ceremony director would prove valuable to gain information on the people she was digging up gossip on. "Why would you make this system though?"

"I had to protect my sources," Mrs. Rubba replied, acting as if that was the most obvious answer in the world. Probably to her it was. "No one would work with me if I didn't protect their identities. So in case anyone ever found my notes or appointments, I put them in code so they couldn't figure it out. Pretty smart, huh?"

"Yeah...very smart."

However, that just made a more pressing question pop into Gohan's head. If this woman really knew what these initials and numbers meant, then he could have her decipher it all. "Have any idea of where those places would be?"

Mrs. Rubba turned the sheet back so she could look at them better, a thoughtful look appearing on her face. "The JJC would be the Jibing Jig Club. Not sure why Erasa would _ever_ go there. It has decent food, but the place is soooooo second class. You wouldn't believe how gaudy the decorations are. Like—"

"Thank you Mrs. Rubba," Gohan thanked as he snatched the page from the woman's hand and slapped it to the desk, pouring over the letters. Goten moved over to get a look at the sheet as well, staring at it curiously. "You've helped us more than you'll ever know."

"You're welcome Sweetie! Here, let me hug you!"

Gohan didn't even look up from the sheet as the woman closed in on him. However, he did grab Goten's arm and pulled the boy next to him. That placed him right in front of the mother as she wrapped her arms around Son boy and proceeded to crush him once more.

"Help…me…" Goten squeaked out as his eyes began bulging out of their sockets, the cracking of his bones being quite audible.

Oblivious to it all, Gohan slid around his desk and sat in his chair. He hardly noticed the large desk calendar that spread out in front of him, though the random scattering of papers and pictures did a good job disguising it. Truth be told, Gohan was more focused on Erasa's date book, particularly the week of her murder. Immediately he found the letters SS DT scribbled on the day of the girl's murder. There was also a 10 there, most likely being the time she was supposed be at the designated place. From what he learned from Mrs. Rubba, Erasa had been meeting a sensitive source at a place called DT at 10. Whether that was 10 AM or PM was up in the air, though it depended on what DT was. It could have been Devil's Tavern, which would make the time 10 PM—unless the source was an alcoholic, which then it could've been AM too.

A THUD sound interrupted the detective's deliberations, causing Gohan to look up and see Goten's crushed body lying on the floor and Mrs. Rubba looking ecstatic. "Well, I'll leave you two sweeties alone," she chirped. "I don't want to keep you from finding that evil murderer out there. Byeeeeee!"

Spinning around, the blonde woman strode out of the room, leaving it completely silent—well, if you discounted the small moans of pain from Goten that is. Standing up, Gohan leaned over the desk to get a better view of his brother and asked "You okay there Goten?"

"Never…walk…again…" was the response.

Gohan winced at that. Though grateful he had been speared that surprisingly powerful hug, he did feel a bit of pity for his broken brother. Perhaps he should let the boy take the rest of the day off, to recover from his harrowing experience and all.

A shrill shriek interrupted Gohan's musings, causing him to bolt out of his seat. Rushing out of the office, Gohan turned into the corridor to find Mrs. Rubba in yet another death-hug, this time Videl being the victim. The woman's face was puffing out comically as she was lifted off the floor, her fingers flexing and twisting rigidly about.

"Oooooh Videl, it's soooooooo good to see you!" the blonde woman was saying, her voice slightly muffled as she rubbed her face affectionately into Videl. Due to the girl being off the ground, this put Mrs. Rubba's face right into the lawyer's bosom.

With all of this happening right in front of Gohan, the only thing the detective found himself doing was staring at it bewilderedly.

* * *

To Gabby: Very small world. Though I don't know about being better than CSI, mostly cause I don't watch it. This has been a more difficult story to write than I imagined, but it seems to be coming out relatively enjoyable to you guys. I guess I'm doing something right.


	10. Chapter 10

Goten dragged his pain-filled body to his brother's desk, hissing and wincing as he did so. Somehow getting around the big wooden obstacle, he managed to pull himself into the chair using the seat and the desk top. Good lord that woman could hurt someone. Two backbreaking hugs in less than ten minutes and Goten was wondering if he should go to the emergency room. Broken bones were serious injures after all.

Letting out a groan, the young Son boy leaned back into the chair, staring out across the disarrayed desk. Huh, he never really noticed how messy it was. Looking at it all, it was almost daunting. Had they really gone through all of this stuff since he got here? Letting his eyes wander, Goten went from one place to the next until he found a small little book with a piece of paper next to it. From what he could make of it, the paper had random numbers and letters on it while the book had the familiar content of a calendar. A closer look told him that the letters and numbers originally came from the datebook. Huh, he hadn't seen this yet.

Leaning forward, Goten flipped through a few pages, finding the strange letters everywhere, the numbers soon being realized as times. Where had Gohan gotten this, he wondered.

Setting the book down, he sighed, looking down on the desk again. Gohan was probably working on it himself so it wasn't something he needed to worry about. Puzzles weren't exactly his forte. Looking beneath the book, it was then the younger Son noticed the large desk calendar. That piqued the young man's curiosity. What had his brother been up to the last few months?

Clearing the calendar so he could see it better, Goten was soon disappointed to find that his brother barely did anything. There were a few things scrawled on the calendar, but not much else. Did Gohan really not do anything but work? Boring!

Eyeing one day that said DEADLINE Noon, he swept his eyes to another day. While he loved his brother greatly, there were times he couldn't help but think how dull he was. There wasn't anything remotely looking like a social occasion anywhere on this thing. Well, except that brief mention of a tavern around 10—no wait, the ten was scratched out for an 11—at night.

Goten had to do a double take on that. Gohan went to a tavern? Huh, he had no idea the guy drank. Then again, Gohan always made it a point to not drink around him. So maybe there was more to him than he thought.

Looking to the day, Goten noted it was a couple weeks ago; right around the time Gohan said he had been accused of murder. Tapping his fingers on the datebook, the young man wondered if there was anything around that time listed in the book. Opening it, he quickly flipped the pages until he found the page he was looking for, finding SS DT 10 on the same day. Frowning, Goten looked from the datebook to the large calendar and back. Though the 10 was crossed out on the calendar, it meant that Gohan was planning to be somewhere at that time of night. While the calendar mentioned a tavern, Goten wasn't sure if the T part of DT was the same as well. Maybe it was a coincidence.

Maybe.

* * *

Gohan hurried into the hallway, part of him dreading the sight he would see. That high pitched squeal had come out of nowhere and he half expected someone was being attacked. That thought was put to a quick death when he saw Erasa's mother hugging his lawyer, the dark-haired woman doing her best impression of a pretzel. Huh, never knew that girl was so flexible.

And as sudden as it had happened, Mrs. Rubba put Videl back on the ground, the woman collapse to the ground instantly. "Oh dear, taking a nap on the floor again? Shouldn't you at least wait until you get back to your home before you go to sleep?"

"Just…catching…my breath," Videl said weakly, her face pressed into the floor as if she were trying to hide herself in it. Her efforts were in vain since Mrs. Rubba was standing next to her.

"So what are you doing here, Videl?" the blonde woman asked pleasantly, looking down on the crippled girl.

Slowly, Videl pushed herself up, her arms reaching out to gather her briefcase and folders. "I'm here to see a client."

"Really? Good for you! I know who ever you're helping is getting the best lawyer ever!"

It was then that Videl looked up and saw Gohan staring at them. Almost immediately her eyes were glaring daggers at him, something that made the young man quite uncomfortable. "Well, it is my job to do represent my client to the best of my abilities, whether they're guilty or not."

"And I'm sure who ever you represent is innocent!"

Gohan couldn't help but wince at that. Though he wholeheartedly agreed with Mrs. Rubba, trying to convince the Satan woman about that was tantamount to climbing the tallest mountain in the world. Sure, a few people had accomplished such a feat, but there was a reason why that number was a few instead of a lot.

"Only time will tell on that," Videl responded, her tone very doubtful. "I best be on my way."

"Sure thing!" As the Satan woman walked passed her, Mrs. Rubba turning her head to watch her go, it was then that she caught sight of Gohan. "Oh Videl! Before you go I absolutely have to introduce you to someone!" Instantly, the older woman was next to the girl, a hand on her back and pushing her towards Gohan. "This is Mr. Gohan! He's helping me find out who killed Er…Era…."

If it was any other time, Gohan would have felt bad for the woman as she slowly broke down again. It was just this time he had a seething woman in front of him that would have rather flayed his skin and remove his entrails with a red-hot poker.

"Oh, we've met," Videl replied chillingly. "In fact, he's—"

"We're working the case together," Gohan interrupted, backing away to open his office door wider. It was best that Mrs. Rubba was kept in the dark about his legal troubles.

Videl glared at him, but said no more. She obviously wasn't in the mood to argue at the moment, something that relieved Gohan slightly, but that was all. Bidding Mrs. Rubba a good day, he slipped back into the office and found Videl and Goten having a stare down.

"Uhh, Gohan?" Goten spoke up. "Who is this?"

"My question exactly," Videl added.

"Oh, Goten, meet Vi—" Gohan paused at that. Perhaps it would be best to refrain from calling Videl by her first name, at least until he got back on her good side, though it was anyone's guess when that would happen. "Ms. Satan, I mean. She will be representing me when my case goes to trial. Ms. Satan, this is Goten, my little brother. He's going to help me with a few things—"

"It's nice to meet you," Videl spoke as she moved to the desk, glancing at its messiness before setting her things on it.

"Same here," Goten murmured, looking dubious at her.

Well, this was starting to get awkward. "Hey Goten, how about you start on that job I gave you?"

Goten looked to him and nodded. "Yeah, I'll see you later." Picking up the folder of the man he was supposed to look into, the younger Son left the office, closing the door behind him.

"So what's that about?" Videl asked him.

"He's just looking into a few things concerning the case," Gohan told her as he moved around his desk, sitting down in his chair. "So what brings you here?"

"As much as it pains me to be here, we still have a case to prepare for."

Gohan leaned back into his chair. "And what do you need to prepare me for?"

"Well, I need to know everything you did the night of Erasa's murder," the woman replied, pulling out a pad of paper and a pen. "The real story if you mind."

The detective stared at her. "But I told you I was at—"

"The Westingham Manor, I know," Videl interrupted. "But according to that blood shirt, that alibi of yours doesn't hold up."

"Not even with the words of the Westinghams backing it?"

"Listen pal," the woman said through gritted teeth. "You and I both know that BS story you had me running after isn't true. How you convinced the Westinghams to follow that story is beyond me, but as of now I consider them useless unless you can convince me that they're somehow relevant to all this. And just so you know, I highly doubt you can."

The young man stared at her for a moment before shaking his head and turning his attention away. "I have other things that require my attention, Ms. Satan, like trying to figure out what happened the night Ms. Rubba died. You're preparations are going to have to wait."

"Look here, I have a job to do and it'll be much easier to do if you cooperate."

"And I also have a job and in order for me to do it, I have to put all my focus on it. I'm sorry if that inconveniences you."

"We both know you're guilty. So instead of claiming that you're innocent and expecting everything to be alright—which is a very flimsy position by the way—we need to actually prepare a defense that will convince the jury that you had no involvement with this murder."

It was quiet for a few moments before Gohan replied "For someone that thinks they've found their murderer, you're sure going through a lot to make sure said murderer doesn't go to jail."

Videl leveled a stony glare. "Like I told you before, I'm here to represent you to the best of my abilities, including fighting to get you off of your deserved punishment. That's the price I have to pay in order to confirm your guilt."

"But you could recues yourself of this case," Gohan retorted. "The moment you discovered the proof you needed of my guilt, you could have dropped the case and never looked back. So why are you still here?"

That seemed to catch Videl off guard as she fell silent, asking herself that very question in her mind. Though Gohan was tempted to let her sort her reasons out, he had more pressing matters he needed to attend to. "What ever your reason is for staying, I hope it's a good one—for your sake. In the meantime, I need to follow a lead. If you're going to insist on doing your work, do the stuff that doesn't require me."

Almost immediately the Satan woman's eyes sharpened, honing in on him. "What kind of lead?"

Gohan hesitated for a moment, glancing to the TV and deciding it couldn't hurt. Turning the screen on, he quickly found the moment on the security tape where Erasa's arms were clearly visible. Pausing at that moment, he then dug through the mess on his desk until he found the photo of Erasa's body, her bracelet-covered arm being visible this time. "What do you see in these shots?" he asked her, handing the photo to Videl.

Looking between them, it took Videl a few seconds to find the discrepancy. "Erasa's wearing a bracelet here, but not in the tavern," she said, confusion written on her face. "But how? What does this mean?"

"It means that it's possible that Ms. Rubba wasn't killed in the alley, but most likely somewhere else. Her body was then brought to the alley and left there."

Videl stared at him. "Why dump a body in a public place though? Wouldn't the killer try and hide the body, or even destroy it to keep the murder a secret?"

"The normal person would," Gohan conceded, "but imagine it from the perspective of a killer—someone that isn't afraid of someone finding their handiwork. Those sorts of people are proud of their killing and some of them aren't afraid to display their victims. They may even be confident enough to believe that no one would ever figure out that they were responsible."

He received a raised eyebrow as a response. "And what kind of people would think that way?"

"Well, you have enforcers for gangs that would do that. If no one sees their work, their message—what ever it may be—isn't taken as seriously as one with a bloody example attached to it. Then you may have a serial killer—"

"Wait, wait," Videl interrupted him, her head bowed a bit with her eyes closed tightly, as if she were suffering from a headache. One of her hands was waving in front of her, a sign she wanted him to stop talking. When her eyes opened and focused on him, she said "Are you saying that a serial killer may have killed Erasa?" She snorted then. "Sorry if I find that hard to believe."

"I said it's possible, not that it was what happened," Gohan retorted. "But you're right, in this case it's doubtful. It's more likely her death had something to do with her work."

"Her work?"

Okay, this woman was thinking slower than she usually did. Either she really hadn't given much thought into her friend's death or he was so far ahead of her that she couldn't catch up. "Yes, she was a journalist, as I'm sure you already know. She's done some high-profile stories too, also something you should know." Gohan paused to take a deep breath. "And I think that the story she was last on was what got her killed."

It was quiet in the room until Videl narrowed her eyes at him, one of her hands balled into a shaking fist. "That sounds too convenient. It doesn't at all explain how you're involved with this. Your shirt has her blood on it."

"Convenient, but very likely." Gohan leaned back into his chair. "I know you don't trust me at all, Ms. Satan, but I know I'm on the right track here. I'd love to go even further into it with you, but I'm getting pressed for time. If you want to hear more, you can come with me, or you can stay here and do what ever work you need to do. The choice is yours."

Getting out of his chair, Gohan went to grab his coat and made his way to the door. As he opened it and moved through it, he felt Videl's presence behind him, walking through the doorway as he turned to close the door behind him. After locking it, the two of them made their way out of the building, where Videl directed them in a different direction than Gohan had planned. "I can drive us to where you want to go," she said, making her way towards her car.

Not looking a gift horse in the mouth, he followed her and climbed into her car when they reached it. They were soon on their way when she finally asked "So where are we going?"

"Corner of 15th and Chestnut Avenue," Gohan directed.

Altering their course in that direction, the woman then asked "So what's this theory of yours?"

Gohan stared out the windshield, his eyes flicking to the side mirror and then back. "Erasa was at your father's tavern to meet a source on her story—the man in the trench coat being the source. When they left, they either parted company or went to confirm what ever that man had told her. Along the way, Erasa obtained that piece of jewelry she was found wearing and died shortly after."

"And you have proof of this?"

"You already saw the pictures, the one with the bracelet and the one without. And thanks to Mrs. Rubba, I know that Erasa was going to the Devil's Tavern to meet with a source of hers. The meeting was obviously set before she appeared in the security feed and the source was covering himself."

Videl flicked her eyes over to him, then back to the road. "What happened to her flirting with the guy? That was obvious in the security feed. Wasn't she supposed to have picked him up in the tavern?"

Gohan shrugged. "Maybe their meeting ended early and the two of them decided to kick back. I really don't know. For all I know, she could have just felt like flirting."

Videl made a sharp turn then, causing Gohan to press up against the door. "How are you coming up to this conclusion? Weren't you claiming that the man Erasa met up with was her killer? What made you change your mind?"

"As I said, I found out she was meeting a source at the tavern."

"And where did you find this out?"

"From her datebook."

Videl's eyes narrowed. "And how did you get a hold of Erasa's datebook?"

"I went to her apartment."

Videl's head snapped towards him, staring at him for several moments until Gohan began crying out "Car. Car! CAR!"

Whipping her head back, she slammed on the breaks, causing their car to let out a shrill shriek as it skidded towards the back of a stopped car. Somehow, the car managed to come to a stop mere inches from a bad crash, leaving both of the car's occupants letting out sighs of relief.

Once traffic began to move, Videl immediately pulled the car into an open side parking spot, putting the car in park and turning to face Gohan down. "You were the one in Erasa's apartment!" she accused.

Gohan stared at her. "You almost got us in a wreck to say that?"

"Is it or isn't it true?"

Swallowing, Gohan answered "I was in Erasa's apartment, yes. But…how do you know?"

"You closed one of the blinds. Erasa never closes just one blind." She paused to harden her glare at him. "And you better give back that datebook."

"It's on my desk," Gohan answered quickly. "You can have it when we get back."

"Damn right I will," she growled as she shifted the car back to drive and pulled the car back onto the street. "How did you even get into the apartment?"

"Front desk gave me the key. Don't worry, I gave it back."

It was silent for a moment, but when Videl spoke, she said "Don't ever go back there. If you do, I will skin you alive and use your skin as a winter coat. Understand?"

"Understood."

* * *

To Gabby: The positive reaction I've gotten so far would suggest that. Gotta keep that feeling going.


	11. Chapter 11

This chapter epitomizes my troubles with this story. I keep thinking I have plenty material for a chapter and I keep ending up with a shorter than expected chapter. It's starting to get worrisome for me. For now, I'll keep to the format I have for this story, mostly because I have a lot written down so there's no point to change it, but in future ones I'll be doing something different. Anyways, sorry for the short chapter.

* * *

It had taken Gohan two whole days to scour the city for every jewelry shop he could find within the city limits. It had been a time-consuming endeavor, going from store to store, street to street, and the only thing he managed to learn in all of that searching was that the bracelet was a custom-make—and no one in the city had made a piece like it. If anything, it had been imported from another country, but never showed up in one of the shops in the city. That led Gohan to believe that the piece had been bought in some other city.

In other words, the whole thing had been a waste of time.

That meant he had to personally stop following the lead. Considering he was a murder suspect, it wasn't like he could just take off to any city he chose and continue the search. Someone could interpret that as him making a run for it and the last thing he needed at the moment was to be called a flight-risk.

However, when he walked back into his office, the last thing he expected to find was Goten waving some weird-looking wand around and wearing a pair of large, bulky headphones. It was bizarre to say the least.

"Uhh, Goten? What are you—"

Goten whipped around at that, his eyes wide as his empty hand went to his neck and made a jerking motion from one side to another. Gohan instantly went quiet, staring owlishly at his weird-acting brother.

Quickly, Goten moved to Gohan's desk and removed the headphones from his head, shoving them and the wand-thing into one of the drawers. After that, he hurried over to Gohan and grabbed him by the arm, dragging him out of the office. "Why don't we go out for some breakfast," Goten said more than asked and continued pulling Gohan down the hallway.

"But it's almost time for—"

"Breakfast, Gohan. It's time for break...fast."

Okay, someone had hit his brother upside the head one too many times—probably by Videl considering her perchance for hitting people. He was gonna have to have a talk with her about that. Anyone with a watch would have known it was almost lunch time, no where near breakfast time, though breakfast did sound pretty good at the moment. Well, maybe you could call it brunch time, but it you would've been pushing it there. And for someone that followed his stomach—like any self-respecting Son would—Goten would have known this, should have known this.

Unless...unless there was something wrong. Okay, that would make sense—explain why Goten was acting like a lunatic. Catching up to his brother's quick pace, Gohan followed the younger Son's lead.

The two of them soon ended up at a diner a few blocks down, though they had Vegeta's men follow them there. Gohan couldn't help but notice the two large men lumber into the diner shortly after they had been seated, taking over a booth a few booths away. All the while Goten seemed jittery, as if he were expecting some surprise attack to come out of nowhere. Deciding to let the boy calm down and figure out his thoughts, Gohan perused the menu until he found something he liked.

Once the waitress had stopped by and taken their orders, Goten decided to open up about what was making him nervous. "Gohan, did you know your office was bugged?"

To his credit, Gohan managed to keep a straight face. After everything he had heard concerning the District Attorney that was after him, it shouldn't have been surprising. "Is that what you were doing when I walked in? Searching for bugs?"

For a moment, Goten looked disappointed. "You don't look too shocked about that," the detective heard him mumble under his breath. Then in a louder, calmer voice, he said "Yeah, I was searching the office for them. I found some too." With that, Goten reached into his pocket and pulled out a small device. From what Gohan could tell, it was a small disk-shaped speaker with a small antenna sticking out of it. "I did a bit of research on this one yesterday," his brother began to explain. "It's a high-quality microphone with a short transmission range. I don't think the frequency could go very far, so who ever is listening in would have to be within a couple blocks to hear it."

Gohan glanced down to the bug. "Did you turn that off when you found it?"

Goten nodded. "Yeah. It was the first thing I did."

The elder Son flicked his eyes over to Vegeta's men, who were periodically glancing over at them, trying to make their looks look casual. "Did you find them anywhere else?"

"No, just the office. I already checked your apartment and didn't find a single one, not even a wiretap. That's weird since they know where your office is and all."

"What if I told you I have a good idea on who bugged us?"

Goten seemed startled by that. "Y-you do? Who?"

"When you can, look over your right shoulder. There's these two large men sitting in a booth and they keep looking our way." Although Gohan could tell Goten wanted to look right then and there, he managed to keep himself still until his best opportunity came. As that turned out, it was when the waitress arrived with their food. As the waitress set their plates down, Goten had turned his head to her to thank her and then made a quick look to the two large men, spotting them quickly before returning his attention back to the waitress. Gohan had to smile at the boy's antics.

Once the waitress was gone, Goten restarted their conversation, lazily pushing his scrambled eggs around with his fork. "Okay, I saw them. Who are they?"

"They're men who work for the DA here, Vegeta. They've been sitting outside the building for the last several days, following me anytime they see me leave. Vegeta wants them to find out anything they can involving my upcoming trial."

A surprised look appeared on Goten's face. "The trial? I thought they were involved with that guy you busted."

Gohan perked up at that, a forkful of French toast hovering before his mouth. "You found out something about that man?"

"Yeah, I did. I found out this guy—Toma, I think—also works for this Vegeta fellow, doing some dirty business for him. Illegal stuff if you get me. I couldn't find out exactly what that was, not even the charges you arrested him for. It's as if any record of it has been wiped clean other than him being arrested. What did you get him on anyways?"

"I'll tell you later," Gohan answered quickly. "Everything you've found out, where did you put it?"

"I hid it. I would have brought it right to you, but after finding out about the bugs, I didn't want to chance having someone sneak in and find it."

"Probably for the best," Gohan sighed. "I'm gonna warn you now, after this bug stuff, things are going to get a lot worse before they get better. You sure you want to keep going with this?"

Goten stared at him as if he had a giant insect on his face. "Gohan? What's going on?"

"I'm not too sure to be honest." Gohan paused to take a sip of his coffee, allowing himself to figure out the words he wanted to say. "We've got microphones hidden around my office, two guys watching the building at all times, most likely hearing everything the bugs catch, another guy doing who knows what while in the employ of the city's most famous—more like infamous—District Attorney. On top of that, there's a dead girl and everyone is pointing at me for her murder. There's a lot more to this than what we're seeing and I get the feeling that who ever is involved in this is a lot more dangerous than we've bargained for. I don't want to drag you further into this than you already are, so if you want to go, I highly encourage that you do so."

"And leave you on your own?" Goten looked aghast at the thought of that. "No way, we're brothers. We stick together when the other needs help and you need all the help you can get." With a resolved look on his face, he proclaimed "I'm with you until the end."

A wry smile appeared on Gohan's face. He should've known better than to try and deter his brother. That wasn't to say that he didn't want his help—in fact, he appreciated it a lot—but considering that they were starting to get an idea of what they were up against, the elder Son didn't want to see the younger one getting hurt. Unfortunately, the odds of either one of them coming out unscathed was decreasing with each day that passed.

Not the sort of odds he liked.

"Alright Goten, thanks." Taking a deep breath, he let it all out in a prolonged sigh. "I'm sure there are a few other things I can get for you to do. Just be careful, alright?"

Goten nodded his head. "You got it. Oh, and one other thing?"

"Yeah?"

"That girl that showed up at the office the other day, is that really your lawyer?"

The wry smile became a bigger, more amused one. "Yeah, she is. She didn't leave much of a good impression, huh?"

Goten snorted. "If I didn't know any better, I'd think she thinks I'm some sort of accomplice or something. Any idea why she would think that?"

"That's because she thinks I did kill that girl. It's a bit screwed up I'll admit, but she's working for free and promises to do a good job. Besides, she's given me some access to stuff I wouldn't have without her."

Goten stared at him for a moment before hanging his head. "I sure hope you know what you're doing, bro. I wouldn't want someone that thinks I'm guilty representing me. She might not try her best for you."

"Possible. But I don't think that would be the case. I had her thinking I was innocent until something recently happened. Now she thinks I'm even worse scum for hiding things."

"What was it that changed her mind?"

"Nothing you need to worry about." Sitting his silverware down, Gohan picked up his napkin and wiped his mouth clean. "But now I need to be getting to the office. Got too much to do and not enough time to do it in." Pulling his wallet out, he tossed some bills onto the table. "That should cover breakfast. Take your time and I'll see you later."

With that, Gohan stood up and made his way out of the diner, vaguely aware of Vegeta's men keeping an eye on him, preparing to leave as well.

* * *

Goten watched his brother leave, as well as one of those men tailing him. Apparently one of them was staying to keep an eye on him as well. Letting out a sigh, he turned back to his half-eaten food and began to pick at it.

Gohan was hiding something from him, he could tell. He knew more than he was revealing and it was irritating that he wouldn't just tell him about it. Goten wasn't surprised by that though; when he had been a kid, his brother would purposefully not tell him things so he wouldn't get scared or upset. Gohan was always trying to protect him and being the subject of a murder trial wasn't going to change that.

A shame really, especially since he was the one that needed protecting now.

Between this Toma fellow he had been researching to finding those bugs, there were some bad people involved in this—he would bet the family house on that. But whether it involved this famous DA or someone that just happened to have an association with him, Goten had no clue. A lot of the information he had been looking for had been absent, especially with some of people working under Vegeta. Toma was one of many people that only had basic information on—birth records, school records, employment records, and such. Anything that had to do with his shadier dealings—which hadn't been easy to obtain mind you—was wiped clean. There was literally nothing on it other than word of mouth. He even had to call up a couple friends he had that had previous involvement in that sort of stuff just to get the information he currently had. Hey, no one was perfect and he was friends with a lot of people. Don't judge.

But yeah, a lot of the dealings Toma had done, they were definitely questionable at best, down right illegal at worst. How a guy like him got a job working for a law office…well, actually that shouldn't have been surprising now that he thought about it. There was a reason why lawyers weren't looked upon as completely ethical. Yet, it was still discerning to find this guy had ties to such a prominent public servant.

Scratch that, having ties to a public servant actually made much more sense than a lawyer's office.

So from his stand point, there was something rotten going on and the people responsible were using his brother as a scapegoat. The elder Son had to know this though, since he had always been the smart one out of the two of them. What Goten wasn't sure of was what his brother would do about it. Hopefully Gohan had some kind of plan. He had to have one, right?

Why did that not sound encouraging?

Goten shook his head. This wasn't the time for having negative thoughts. He needed to finish his breakfast and get back on the job. His brother was counting on him and he wouldn't dream of failing him.

Cleaning his plate off, Goten paid the bill and made his way out of the diner, catching sight of Gohan's second tail leaving soon after him. Hmm, so was he going to have someone following him too? Was it because of his association with his brother or had his digging caught their attention? Maybe even his discovery of the bugs had tipped them off? Either way, he was going to have to be careful. He knew these were dangerous people and one misstep could prove deadly.

The fact they were involved in a murder investigation was proof of that.


	12. Chapter 12

This one goes out to Ladylaide. Because she loves herself some Vegeta.

* * *

District Attorney Vegeta was a very intimidating man. Though short in stature and dark hair rising from his head like spikes to compensate, his reputation alone was enough to make certain defendants soil themselves upon meeting him.

Out of the corner of her eye, Videl eyed her client to see if he would join that illustrious group.

Gohan was seated at her side, looking quite nervous as the DA gazed at him with a cold, stony look, made more severe by his hardened features. It was as if the detective was a slab of lamb and Vegeta was figuring out the best way to season and cook him—a lion on the prowl with sharp claws just waiting to tear flesh.

A small part of Videl—okay, make that a large part—was enjoying watching Gohan fidgeted in his seat, beads of sweat slowly appearing on his forehead and dripping down his face. It had only taken minutes for this sight to occur and the Satan woman was wondering if she could send a thank-you card or a gift basket to the DA for letting her witness this.

Unfortunately, there were other things that she had to deal with. Today was the day of Discovery, where both sides revealed what evidence and information they had gathered during their investigations so as to give both sides equal opportune time to counter the other side's strategy. The prosecution had to hand over everything they had while she had to hand over everything she had. It was standard practice really, though this was the first time she had to do such a thing on her own and in front of the most vicious DA in history.

Sitting on one side of the table was Videl and Gohan with all of the material they had collected in their investigations in a couple of cardboard boxes. On the other side was Vegeta with several expensively-dressed men either sitting down or standing up, large boxes full of files and papers and who knows what in them. Vegeta had come prepared for war and he never missed a chance to put the defense on its heels.

It had been silent since both sides had entered the room, aside from Vegeta's assistants walking in and out of the room or taking notes of anything that caught their attention. The scratching of their pens on pads of paper were the only sounds that were being made.

And then the mediator walked into the room. He was a tall man, dressed appropriately with his hair braided into a ponytail. With sharp eyes, he took in the room's occupants, making sure the right people were present. "Good day everyone," he greeted professionally.

Vegeta merely nodded his head as Videl returned the greeting, "Good day, Mr. Zarbon."

Taking a seat at the head of the table, Zarbon immediately got things underway. "This is case file MC440083, The State vs. Son Gohan. All parties are present and accounted for. Today we will be undergoing the discovery process of the case. Would the prosecution like to proceed first?"

"The prosecution will present last," Vegeta replied.

"Very well. Lawyer for the defense, please disclose your case to the prosecution."

Videl leaned forward in her chair, entwining her fingers together as she cleared her throat. "The defense is undergoing an investigation currently into the days surrounding the murder of the victim, Ms. Erasa Rubba. The defendant denies any involvement with the case and has found evidence to support his defense."

At this point, Videl turned in her chair and leaned over to remove the Devil's Tavern security tapes from their box. They were copies of course, since the Tavern needed to keep their own tapes and the defense needed them as well. "These are tapes with security footage from the Devil's Tavern, the last known location where the victim was seen alive. The defense wishes it to be noted that the first image of Ms. Rubba is around 11:30 PM. She is seen with a male companion, but his identity is unknown."

"What is the unidentified man wearing?" Vegeta spoke up, his eyes focusing on her. His cold eyes bored into her, something that made Videl very uncomfortable. Perhaps she shouldn't have taken so much glee in Gohan's nervousness.

"He is wearing a trench coat and a fedora hat. He appears to have dark hair, but any other recognizable feature is not present," Videl answered. All the while, Vegeta's assistance wrote down what she said verbatim. The only one not busy was Vegeta, who was leaning back into his chair comfortably. Zarbon was making quick notes of the exchange for the court's records.

When Vegeta didn't press for more information concerning the unidentified man's description, Videl moved to bring out the police file on the case. However, she caught Vegeta moving out of the corner of her eyes, the man leaning to a nearby assistant and harshly whispering "Tapes?"

It was just one word, but the effect over the man was instant. He was practically a mirror image of Gohan from earlier, quivering and sweating in anxiety. "W-we couldn't g–g-get a-a hold of them."

Vegeta merely narrowed his eyes into a glare at the man and then turned away. It was several seconds later that Videl smelt something unpleasant. Did…did that assistant just…

"If I may be excused," the assistant suddenly said, pushing his chair back and standing up. The man looked as if he were using all of his willpower not to hold his backside. Without waiting for a reply, the man hastily exited the room. Without even batting an eye, one of the standing assistants took the man's seat, not even skipping a beat in his note-taking.

Wow…that was…intense.

Pulling out the police file, Videl composed herself before placing the file on the table. "This is a copy of the police file on the case. In it are several pictures of the victim as she was found at the scene of the crime." Opening the file, Videl removed a few of the photos and pushed them towards Vegeta. "The defense would like to make it known that there are discrepancies between the photos and the tapes—specifically the bracelet found on the victim's right arm."

Because she had been looking up at Vegeta, she was able to catch a reaction—not from the DA at all, he was as emotionless as ever—but from his legal team. A few of the assistants had halted their writing, a couple even looking to each other. Videl hasn't expected that reaction out of a seasoned group of lawyers.

Slightly thrown off by that reaction, Videl glanced over to Gohan to see if he had caught it. She was even furthered surprised to find the detective's previously uneasy expression had been exchanged for a sharp one. It was almost as if he were expecting the reaction, analyzing it for all it was worth.

"Is there anything else?" Zarbon intoned, his voice startling Videl out of her ruminations.

"Umm, yes," she stumbled. "We have a written alibi for my client on the night of the murder along with witness testimony confirming it. We intend on calling these witnesses as character witnesses for the defense." Pulling out a file, Videl set it on the table and pushed it to the prosecution's side of the table. "This is a document that has said alibi and the conversation with each witness."

Turning to Zarbon then, Videl said "That is all the evidence that the defense is presenting at this time."

"At this time? Do you have more?" Vegeta questioned.

Videl coolly turned to Vegeta and said "Our investigation is incomplete at the moment. We will be updating you with further findings as they come." Videl would feel proud that she had leveled a reply like that on someone of the DA's stature later on in her apartment. As of right now though, she was focused on other things.

"Then it is time for the prosecution to present their case," Zarbon announced.

With a nod of his head, two of his assistants lifted up two boxes and placed them on the table. "These are all the police reports, their investigation, and witness testimonies gathered by the police department," Vegeta presented. "We will be using all of this as evidence in the trial as well as calling many of the witnesses to testify."

"What kind of witnesses?" Videl inquired.

"Witnesses that saw the detective on the night of the murder. It was during those interviews we found our next piece of evidence."

One of the assistance pulled out a picture and placed it on the table in front of her. The image was that of the infamous bloody shirt the police had found linking Gohan to the murder. A part of Videl went numb upon seeing it. That blood, that large red stain that was once inside of Erasa was staring her in the face. She could only focus on that.

"Is there a blood spatter analysis of this?" Gohan suddenly spoke, shocking the Satan woman out of her stupor.

Apparently, Vegeta didn't expect that question either as he glanced at the detective with a frown. "Repeat that."

"A blood spatter analysis. It's a report by the forensics lab that determines how the blood was spilled," Gohan explained, much to the annoyance of the lawyers in the room. They knew what that report was, no need to explain it to them, or so Videl felt. "Do you have that report as well?"

"It should be in one of those boxes," Vegeta replied flippantly.

"Indicate which one you mean," Zarbon interjected.

Vegeta turned his cold look to the mediator, Zarbon brushing the look off harmlessly. Glaring, Vegeta nodded his head and said "Show them which box."

The assistants moved to the boxes and began digging into them. Apparently no one was sure where the blood report was, Videl mused. They spent several minutes digging through the boxes, much to the growing irritation of the DA. Considering these were the best lawyers Vegeta had under his wing, it was slightly embarrassing to have them look so unprepared even in something as routine as Discovery. As it turned out, their search proved fruitless as both assistants looked up and seemed ashamed at their lack of success.

"Get a hold of that report," Zarbon instructed, "and send it to the defense immediately." The mediator jotted the order down as he said this. "Is there anything else the prosecution would like to present?"

* * *

"What was that about?" Videl asked as she and Gohan left the courthouse, carrying the prosecutions boxes with them. The meeting had followed that tone for the rest of its duration. Once they were done, they had thanked the mediator and left.

"What was what about?" Gohan responded as he looked at her quizzically.

"That blood thing, why did you ask about it? There wasn't much point to it."

A small smile appeared on Gohan's face as he looked forward. "Just keeping the DA on his toes."

Videl looked at him incredulously. "You purposefully antagonized the District Attorney? What are you, insane? Didn't you see him tearing you apart with his eyes?"

"Yeah I did. And I nearly crapped my pants from it."

"And you still went ahead and provoked him." Videl shook her head. "You're crazy, you know that?"

"But it was worth it!" Gohan spoke cheerfully. "Caught him holding stuff out on us."

"Or he just simply forgot it at the office," Videl deadpanned. "It doesn't mean anything."

"You do realize who you're talking about," Gohan retorted. "This man is the top District Attorney in the city. There is no way he would leave out any sort of information on accident. The only reason why he wouldn't have something is if he purposefully left it behind or hadn't received it. His reaction indicated he had seen the report already and was withholding it. Now it's part of the discovery recorder in the event that we never get the report."

That…was actually a good point. Still, she couldn't give in just yet. "You know a judge could put the burden of obtaining that report on us. We can request it just like the prosecution can."

"Ah, but I'm accused of murder," Gohan countered. "You've seen the bias against me at the police station. What makes you think we'd get that report as fast as the prosecution requesting it? Heck, they can even make a copy right now and send it to us faster than the PD sending it to us would be. Just argue that there is an obvious prejudice against me that prevented us from obtaining the report on our own and mention that the mediator ordered the prosecution to deliver us a copy."

Seriously, why was this guy not a lawyer? He seemed to know how to handle this case on his own. He verbally embarrassed the DA here and seemed to have enjoyed it.

That caused Videl to frown. That didn't seem right. The detective here had been sweating bullets the moment the DA had locked eyes with him. How did someone go from being scared of a man to catching him off guard and being so confident about it? Something wasn't adding up here.

It was at that moment that the two of them arrived at her car. Placing the boxes in the back seat, Videl caught sight of Gohan beginning to walk away, something that puzzled her to no end. "Where are you going?"

Gohan looked over his shoulder, slowing his pace as he did so. "Heading back to the office. Why?"

"You know, I can give you a ride there."

"You sure? The last few times we've been together, you've left me stranded in the middle of the city."

It wasn't like he didn't deserve that. He did kill her friend after all. However, they had some work to do. "We still need to talk. The sooner we get it done, the better. Now get in the car."

Gohan stopped in his tracks stared at her for a few moments. Finally, he turned around and walked back to the car, climbing in once he arrived. Videl began to follow suit, but noticed someone watching them from the courthouse steps. Shifting her attention to the person, she found Vegeta staring at them, emotionless as ever, studying their every move and word. It was unsettling to say the least.

After climbing in, they pulled away from the courthouse and made their way through town. "Mind explaining to me why the DA has people saying they saw you the night of the murder?"

"No clue."

Videl scowled. "Listen Private Dick, your alibi claims you were at the Westingham Manor for the entire night that the murder occurred. These witnesses claim otherwise. Obviously someone is lying and I'm not convinced you aren't. So you better start coming clean."

Gohan was silent for a moment before replying "The people that were mentioned are residence of my building. It's wouldn't be a lie for them to say they've seen me without being asked a specific date."

"But Vegeta said those interviews gave a specific date, the one when Erasa was murdered."

"And you don't think he wouldn't manipulate them into making those claims? He's a lawyer by trade and he knows how to get people to say what he wants. He could have had them admit to an assassination if he wanted to."

Videl gritted her teeth as her grip on the wheel tightened until her knuckles turned white. "You're evading the question."

"What do you care? You think I'm already guilty."

"I'm also your lawyer. If you don't tell me what I need to know, then I can't do my job properly."

Gohan snorted. "You have my defense. Just use that."

Videl was very tempted to stop the car and kick the jerk out. Unfortunately, she needed to work with this guy despite his obvious guilt. The DA had shown them what nails he was using to close the detective's coffin and apparently her client intended to help with the hammering. Whatever, if the guy wanted an ill-prepared lawyer representing him, then that was what he was going to get.

Even if it didn't sit right with her at all.

* * *

Alright, there's a a couple things I need to clear up. First of which is that I don't know how the Discovery Process is really operated. The scene here is pretty much me making it up, though you would think a moderated would be present to make it official. Also, I'm not sure how the give-and-take of the meeting is. Hopefully I'm not confusing anyone with it.

To Gabby: I wouldn't concern myself with powers or martial arts with this story if I were you. The main focus is on the mystery and intrigue.


	13. Chapter 13

Videl stared at the young man on the other side of the room.

This Goten guy seemed like a nice enough fellow. He had a carefree attitude most of the time she was around him, though he seemed to get very serious when ever something involving his brother came up. To be honest, Videl hadn't talked to him much. It wasn't that she disliked him or anything, she just didn't know how to approach him.

Goten seemed to believe completely that his brother was innocent. The way he talked, the way he acted was as if there was no fault that could be found in the detective. Because of that, Videl had made their interactions very brief and limited. She didn't think she could stand discussing the case with someone that was so willfully blind. She knew the detective was guilty without a doubt—seen the very evidence that proved it. Any protestations to the contrary just proceeded to give her a headache. That wasn't to say that she only had that reaction to this case, it was to every client she had ever defended and was obviously guilty.

So far Gohan had been keeping their work separated somehow. Goten was usually running around town for what ever reason the detective had for him while she was fully engrossed on the case. You would think their separate works would cross at some point, but as of yet they hadn't.

Perhaps that needed to change.

"What are you working on?" she asked.

Goten jumped before looking over to her curiously. "Just something Gohan told me he needed?" he responded warily, unsure even. That was something that caught Videl's attention. "Why do you ask?"

"Isn't it a bit odd that we haven't collaborated yet? I mean, we're both working to get your brother off, yet anything we've done hasn't required the two of us to interact at all."

Goten shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not involved with that trial stuff—that's your area. I'm just helping find evidence and stuff."

"But you would have had to let me know what you found at some point," Videl pointed out. "If you found something significant, then it would be best for me to know so that I can incorporate it into the defense."

"Gohan knows what you need to know and he would know better than me if the stuff I was researching was important to the case."

Research? What kind of stuff was he researching, Videl wondered. Research was something that would come in handy, but why keep it away from her? That was not conducive to his continued freedom. "You mind telling me what you're looking into?"

"Don't you have those case files you have to look through?"

Videl glanced to the boxes the prosecution had given her. "There's nothing in there I can't get from the police file. Most of it is just the case file repeated over and over with maybe a few different things hidden in them. There's really no need to go looking through it all."

Goten blinked his eyes at her. "Why would they give you two whole boxes of that?"

"To make me waste time mostly. The DA wants to overload me with work so by the time we get to the arraignment, I wouldn't be at my best, tired after spending night after night searching through things I already know." Nodding her head to the boxes then, Videl said "That's pretty much worthless aside from some photos and a couple interviews."

"I…had no ideas lawyers could do that."

"Most don't. But there's not any rules saying you can't either." Videl then gave him a winsome smile. "Now how about you tell me what you're working on."

Goten seemed unsure for a moment before shrugging his shoulders. "I've been hunting down information on a guy Gohan helped arrest, a man named Toma."

Toma huh? She was just gonna have to look more into the guy once she left the detective's office. "Are you talking about the guy your brother busted a week before the Rubba murder?"

"Yeah."

"A parole violator," Videl waved off. "I don't see why you had to look into him."

Goten gave her a look for a moment. "Yeah, he did violate parole once. Three years ago."

Videl jerked up. Three _years_ ago? Didn't he mean three _weeks_? "The detective told me he helped arrest that man for being a parole violator. You sure it wasn't a few weeks ago?"

Goten shook his head. "Not a few weeks ago. From what I found out, Gohan helped arrest the guy twice, once for a parole violation, but that ended up getting kicked out because the guy had some help from some high-powered attorney. I'm still trying to figure out how he managed to get that sort of legal help. As for the second time, there was for some sort of illegal business involved, don't know what exactly. He and a couple cops arrested him at a tavern."

Videl stared at the younger Son. What the hell was going on here? Had her client lied to her this entire time? What the hell could he gain from hiding this from her? And what else did he lie about? "Why would he tell me about the parole violation instead of the illegal smuggling or whatever?"

The young man shrugged. "Maybe he doesn't trust you."

Oh, that was rich. A murderer not trusting his lawyer, pfft.

"But," Goten continued, "he's always been like that. I mean, he didn't exactly lie to you about arresting him for the parole violation. He just told you the wrong date is all."

That was a point, but not a very strong one. "Are you telling me he usually does stuff like this?"

"My brother is more likely to omit things or tell you half the things you need to know instead of flat out lying. I'm guessing he told you that he had previously arrested the guy, but didn't say when he did it. You just assumed he did at that point in time."

There were several moments that Videl just stared at the boy. Then in a rush of movement, Videl scrambled over to Gohan's desk and began rummaging around it, looking for a particular file. It took awhile, but she eventually found the one she was looking for: the parole violator file. Flipping it open, Videl searched for a date and found it. Eyes widening, instead of the date she had been hoping to find, she found one for three years ago plus a couple months. How had she not seen that when she first read it?

Riffling through the some of the papers, it then occurred to her that she hadn't actually read the report. She had just gone off of what Gohan had told her. Stupid, stupid! Why hadn't she read the report to make sure he was telling the truth? That was an amateur mistake—no, a grade-schooler mistake! Feeling frustrated, Videl heatedly read through the report, just to make sure that part of Gohan's story was at least true.

"Umm, what are you doing?"

"Making sure your ass of a brother didn't completely lie to me," she growled in response. It didn't take long to determine that the parole story was true, though the arrest had actually occurred at another bar. The detective had combined elements of the two encounters together.

Yet, there was something bothering her. When she had gone to the police station to request this folder, she had asked for the encounter the week before Erasa's mother. How had a three year old case file ended up with her instead of the other one? Letting out an aggravated sigh, she set the file down on the desk, letting the pages of the report go to their original place before she closed it. It was as the last page fell that something jumped out at her. On the top page of the report she saw the usual header for all of the city's police reports. There were several words with blanks next to them, indicating what info went here. The date, the case number, the criminal code, and officer's name were a few of the words in front of the blanks. It was the name of the officer that caught her eye though.

Tien Shinhan.

Could he have been responsible for putting this file amongst the other ones she asked for? If so, why would he do that? None of this was making sense!

Letting out a frustrated cry, Videl punched the desk, causing it to quake and shifting everything on top it. What the hell was seriously going on? It was like she had stumbled into a mystery inside of a mystery! Letting her eyes drift over the desktop, her eyes swept over the large desk calendar, taking in the scribbled letters and numbers on it. Well, make that the lack of anything on it. This client of hers didn't do much according to the calendar and the only thing remotely looking social was some tavern visit on…

Wait…that date…and the time there. Moving around the desk to read it better, Videl kept her eyes on that specific appointment, her breath being caught in her throat. That tavern visit was on the night of Erasa's murder. Before it of course, but it was only a couple hours before Erasa showed up on the security footage. Add to the fact that Gohan also wore a trench coat like the man in the tape and everything fell into place.

Son Gohan had been that man in the tape.

"You alright there?" Goten asked her from the other side of the table he sat at, looking at her worriedly.

"Tell me, does your brother own a fedora hat?" Videl asked, nay demanded. She was not in the mood to be polite at the moment.

"A fedora? I don't know," he answered. "I gave him one as a gift once, but he never really wore it. It was more as a joke since he started wearing that coat of his."

Videl immediately moved around the desk to Goten, though he wasn't the reason why she did this. The TV and VCR were still on the desk where Gohan had put them so long ago. Checking the VCR to make sure the security tape was still in it, her aggravation growing as she found that it wasn't.

Whipping her head around, she demanded to Goten "Do you know where the security tapes are?"

"No clue."

What the hell! Why were the tapes gone? Just when she needed to confirm something, they vanished without a trace! And it wasn't like they handed them over to Vegeta without having their own copy. Considering what she had learned here so far, Videl couldn't help but think Gohan had something to do with it, that lying bastard. The next time she saw him, he wouldn't have to worry about being convicted of murder. That would become her own concern.

"You mind telling me what's going on?" Goten inquired, moving to stand near her.

Taking a deep breath to calm herself somewhat, Videl responded "There's a security tape from the Devil's Tavern that has Era…the murder victim talking with a man. The man is dressed in a trench coat just like your brother's and he's wearing a fedora hat. After they talk with each other, they both leave the tavern out the backdoor. I was going to show you the tape, but it's missing."

"A tavern?" Goten questioned as he came to a stop, his eyes sweeping over to the desk calendar. So he had seen that appointment too. When he looked back to her, he asked "And you think this guy could be Gohan?"

"Think, no; know, yes," Videl stated with conviction.

Goten glared at her. "Prove it."

Videl resisted the smirk that threatened to cross her face. Oh how she was going to enjoy destroying this guy's perception of his evil brother. "As has been mentioned already, your brother owns a trench cat and a fedora hat just like the man in the security tape. The last anyone sees of that man and Erasa alive is when they leave out the backdoor. Erasa is later found in the alleyway the door leads to. Your brother's fingerprints and hair strands were found at the scene. Also, a shirt belonging to him was found in a trash can a few blocks away from the crime scene covered in blood."

The blood in Goten's face had drained out of it by this point, his features paled by all of this information. "No…there's no way," he murmured softly. "How…why?"

"Sorry to tell ya, but your brother is a murderer. There's no way around it," the Satan woman informed him. "Everything points to him and this is coming from the person trying to defend him. Just imagine what the prosecution already has to bury him with."

For several moments, Goten looked lost, like a wounded child with nowhere to go. Then a determined expression appeared on his face, resolve filling his eyes. "I'm talking to Gohan about this."

"Oh and you think he'll tell you the truth?" Videl countered. "Like he's told everyone else the truth surrounding this? You're just wasting your time—"

That was when the office door opened, Gohan walking in. He stopped in his tracks though, when he saw the two of them standing by his desk, giving him different looks. Goten probably had that same determined look on his face, but Videl knew she couldn't hide the disgust she felt for him. "Umm…you guys okay?" he asked bewildered.

Goten immediately pointed at her. "She says you killed that girl."

"And that's any different how?"

"I've got proof," Videl retorted as she took a step towards him, glaring him down. Pointing at him, she continued "You're the man in that security tape. You have the same coat and, according to your little brother, you also own the same hat. Then there's that bloody shirt they found. And on top of that, you've been lying to me this entire time."

Gohan stared at her with wide eyes. "Lying?"

"Is it true Gohan?" Goten butted in. "Is she right about any of this?" There was a hint of desperation in the boy's voice, almost as if he were wishing it wasn't true. Videl would have snorted at the idea considering what she had just told him.

However, instead of replying to either of them, the detective just stared at them, slowly processing what they were saying. Videl and Goten were slowly growing impatient with the pause until it was broken by the elder Son sighing. "Let's go for a walk," he simply said before moving to leave the office.

"Oh no, you are not leaving here without telling us the truth," Videl said severely.

Gohan merely shook his head. "Can't talk here. If you want to talk, you'll come with me."

Immediately, Goten was striding over to his brother purposefully. This irritated Videl to no end. With a growl, she went over to where she had laid her suit coat and picked it up. Pulling it on, she walked over and through the doorway, the detective closing the door behind her and locking it. "You better have a damn good reason stalling, bastard."

"Room's bugged," was all he said before walking down the hall.

That caused Videl to pause. Bugs? As in the microphones? Hurrying after the two Son's she was about to ask him to clarify that when Gohan beat her to the punch.

"The DA has the whole place wired. Goten can confirm that if you want since he was the one who told me. Even found a couple."

"Then why not remove them?" Videl demanded.

"Not here. I'll tell you both everything when we get somewhere safe and not before then."

Videl glared at him. "Then tell me this: where are we going?"

"To the only place Vegeta doesn't have ears," was the answer.

* * *

To Gabby: Seems Vegata was a popular guy last chapter.

To FYI: Thanks for the head's up.


	14. Chapter 14

Videl's car was bathed in the shadows made by the looming Westingham Manor. Looking out the passenger side window, Goten could feel him become intimidated by the huge place. Why Gohan had wanted to come here of all places to tell his story was beyond him, though that wasn't the thought at the forefront of his mind. How Gohan had access to such a wealthy building was what threw him for a loop.

"Alright, we're here," Videl announced from the driver's seat. That had been the first words spoken since the three of them had gotten in the car. Gohan had told his skeptical lawyer to drive to this place just as they arrived at the car. To say that Goten had been startled by such a destination would be an understatement. Videl had merely stared at him for a moment before grumbling and climbed into the car.

The sound of a car door opening shook Goten from his reverie. Gohan was getting out of the vehicle with Videl following his lead. Hurriedly, Goten got out of the car too, slamming the door shut behind him as he followed his brother's tail up to the large, wooden doors.

However, before any of them could knock on the door to announce their presence, it was swung open, revealing an old man with glasses staring at them—sunglasses Goten noted. Why the heck was this guy even wearing sunglasses at night? "You come at a late hour Detective Son," the man remarked.

"Is Mr. Westingham in?" Gohan asked as he walked into the house. Uneasily, Goten followed behind him, the wealth of this place thoroughly shocking his system. Being surrounded by things that would cost his family their house was a very new experience for him. Videl didn't seem to have as much of a problem as he had though, the woman striding in like she owned the place. The younger Son couldn't help but notice the lawyer giving a chilling glare at the old butler. Had they met before?

"He is," the butler answered, shutting the door behind them. "He and the Lady were about to head out for the evening. Shall I inform them of your arrival?"

"You can. And tell Westingham that I'm going to have to break my silence."

A white eyebrow rose. "Are you sure you have to?"

"Well, it's either that or I'm going to be the latest guy on Death Row. I rather not have my lawyer _and_ my brother thinking I'm guilty as sin."

"I'm not sure if that's a wise course of action," the man acknowledged. "But I will inform the Master of your predicament. I leave you to do as you wish."

Gohan nodded. "We'll be in the sitting room."

"Which one?"

Goten stared at the butler with wide eyes. This place had sitting _rooms_? As in plural, multiple, several even? Why? Why would anyone need more than one? And where would you put them all? Seriously, these rich people made no sense to him.

Gohan didn't seem as taken back as he was. "The one Mr. Westingham takes me every time he has a job for me."

Whoa, hold the phone. Gohan worked for this guy before? How had he landed that kind of job? To say that Goten was impressed was…well, you get the idea. Who knew his brother was rubbing shoulders with wealthy men?

As the three left the butler to his duties, Gohan led them into a hallway, taking them all the way to the end of the corridor and taking a right. His brother passed a couple doors before opening one on the right, revealing a sitting room. When the lights turned on, they revealed a floor covered in a rich blue carpet with a few chairs situated near a large oak desk. There were a few crystal liquor bottles on the desk along with a few crystal glasses, a desk lamp and a telephone. In a corner of the room was a small dresser with more bottles of liquor situated on it. Moving to the desk, Gohan turned to face them once he reached it, leaning back against it as he rested his hands on the wooden surface. "Take a seat, please."

Following the request, Goten and Videl sat in the chairs in front of him, looking up at his face. For a moment, Goten could have sworn his brother's face had aged years right in front of him. His eyes were shut, his face twisted into a pained expression, and wrinkles covered his brow. In all of his years, the young Son boy had never seen him like this.

The sight didn't seem to bother the lawyer woman, something that bothered Goten greatly. "Alright, enough stalling. It's time you started talking."

Gohan's face twitched. Opening his eyes, he looked to the Satan woman and asked "What do you want to know?"

Videl was about to start her inquiry when Goten jumped in. He wasn't feeling too courteous at the moment. "Why did you bring us here? Why wasn't the apartment good enough?"

"Didn't know if Vegeta had that place bugged too. This is the only place I know that he wouldn't touch because no one messes with the Westinghams, being the wealthiest family in the city and all. What I have to tell you is something I don't want him hearing about."

"Does this Westingham guy know anything about this?"

A small smile appeared on Gohan's face. "Actually, you can say he's the reason why I'm in this mess to begin with."

"Now hold on," Videl jumped in. "You're in this because you killed Erasa. What the hell do people like the Westinghams have to do with this?"

Gohan turned his attention to Videl. "You know the rumors about Vegeta, right? That he isn't the most ethical person around?"

"Your point?"

"Well, some people think his shadier side goes deeper than what some people whisper to each other. Some things that are considered illegal. Some people in the federal government began taking notice of this and asked Westingham to look into it."

That answer only seemed to annoy the lawyer woman more. "So the government has ties to a wealthy man. What does this have to do with anything at all?"

Gohan looked at her sternly. "If you want to hear this story, then be quiet." Waiting a couple seconds for the woman's response, he then continued. "When people think of Westingham, they see him as some rich guy married to a beautiful wife without a care in the world. Most don't know that he's involved with the government, specifically with the agencies that specialize in investigations. When the rumors reached those agencies, Westingham was authorized to form a taskforce with uncovering truth of these rumors."

"And Gohan is a part of that taskforce." Upon hearing the new voice, Goten nearly jumped out of his skin, jerking around to find a short man with a head full of dark hair. Considering the suit he was wearing, Goten was assuming this was the Westingham guy he had been hearing about so far. Huh, he had been expecting someone taller…

"So, mind telling me why you're revealing this to them?" Westingham asked as he walked further into the room. From what Goten could tell, he didn't seem very happy making that statement. "You've always been good at keeping your silence."

"The two of them were jumping to very bad conclusions," Gohan answered. "And since my office is bugged, I didn't need them giving Vegeta any more possible scenarios he could spin at trial. So do you mind if I tell them everything?"

The man looked to them and said "Your lawyer I suppose can know, but I don't know about this guy."

"I do have a name, ya know," Videl muttered.

"This is Goten, my little brother," Gohan answered Westingham. "He's been helping out with the investigation, though I think it's about time he knows just what he's getting involved with."

Westingham just stared at the two of them for awhile before looking back to Gohan. "I guess I'll have to trust your judgment on this one." There was a reluctant tone in his voice. "But before you go any further, they have to be sworn to secrecy. I will not allow them jeopardizing this entire thing like that reporter."

"Reporter?" Videl nearly leapt from her seat at that. "Erasa knew about this? How? When?" Then something else clicked in her head. "Does this mean you knew Erasa?" she direct to Gohan.

"As Krillen said, I can't tell you anymore without an oath that you won't repeat a word of this," Gohan replied.

"Yeah, yeah, I swear I won't say a word. Now spill!"

Gohan turned his attention to Goten. "And you Goten?"

By now a part of Goten was beginning to wonder what he had gotten himself into. Cloak and dagger games were always things from those spy books he liked to read. To see his brother involved in one was alarming. Very alarming. Still, he had come this far. "Yeah, I promise I won't say anything."

"Now tell us about Erasa," Videl demanded.

Gohan sighed. "Where do I start?" he said more to himself than to them. "The beginning would be a good place, right?" he directed his question to Krillen.

"Go ahead."

"Alright then. Krillen here recruited me and several other people for his taskforce to investigate Vegeta. We've spent the last year and a half on this thing, finding out all about his secret side business—black market dealing, smugglings, and stuff of that nature. He's been using his position as DA to make sure no one knows of his involvement in these ventures, checking to see if there's any investigations that may concern one of his fronts or even his men. It's the reason why the taskforce was even made to begin with because corruption is rampant in Police Department and City Council."

"What kind of corruption?" Goten asked.

"Bribery, intimidation, you name it. There isn't a thing that runs through those places that Vegeta doesn't know about. It's a big reason why the taskforce was set up."

"And you were involved with it, why?" Videl spoke up skeptically.

"Because I'm not affiliated with the PD in any way; I'm a free agent. That and I've done work for Krillen here."

"What kind of work?" Videl's responded, her eyes narrowing. "Considering how you've kept all of this quiet so far, I'm assuming that your original alibi was your cover story for this whole thing."

"Well, I guess it did become our cover story," Gohan acknowledged. "But that story's true. It's just that it took place four years ago when I was first starting out. Krillen was my lucky break, you could say."

"And I've been using him for all kinds of jobs ever since," Krillen added. "He does good work in case you haven't noticed."

"So who else would be involved in this?" Goten jumped in, trying to steer the conversation back.

"No one you would know about," Gohan told him. "But Videl's met a couple of them, Officers Shinhan and Yamcha."

"Wait, you've gone on about police corruption, yet you have a couple cops on your team?" Videl said incredulously. "Now I know you're making this all up."

"Then how do you explain where you're at?" Krillen countered. "Maybe you think Gohan here is lying, but I can tell you it's a hundred percent true."

"Those two are good guys also," Gohan interjected. "We still needed a presence in the PD to make sure our operation was largely unknown and to figure out how far the department was underneath Vegeta's thumb."

"And the others?"

"It's best you don't know about them," Krillen answered. "For your own good."

"Anyways," Gohan continued, "we've been doing this for about a year when Erasa caught wind of it." He chuckled at that. "I still don't know how she heard about it. But regardless, she began beating down the door here for answers. After a chance meeting with Roshi, she decided to change tactics and came to my place."

"And what did you tell her?" Videl pressed.

"That I had no idea what she was talking about and that she should leave. As you might imagine, she didn't believe me and kept hounding me. It wasn't until a few days before her murder that she…found something."

"And that something was?"

"It was sensitive to the investigation. Not something we wanted leaked out. Unfortunately, Erasa confronted me on it and said that she was going to have it printed by the end of the week. I managed to talk her out of it and agreed to tell her what was going on. We decided to make the meeting place somewhere public. That ended up being at your father's bar."

"Why the bar? Why not some place more private?"

"Erasa felt that if we were in public, the less likely someone would try something on us. She was getting edgy with every passing day."

Videl seemed troubled by this. "I don't like the sound of that. What could she have found out that would've stressed her out? I mean, I saw her the day before she was killed and she looked alright to me. Did something happen at the tavern or something?"

A wiry smile appeared on Gohan's face. "You could say that. That's when everything went to hell."

* * *

I have this gut feeling that I've enraged Ladylaide with this chapter. So before she decides to beat me to a pulp, sorry! And if that isn't enough...well, please be gentle. I'm very sensitive.

To Gabby: Well, you were right. Good guess. How was that for a twist?


	15. Chapter 15

Yay, Ladylaide didn't kill me! For that joyous occasion, here's a new, long chapter.

And this story has just reached 100 reviews. I'd like to extend my deepest thanks to all of you who have read and reviewed this story. I didn't think it would get to this point, so this has definitely been a nice surprise. Again, thank you and I hope you continue to enjoy the story.

* * *

The muggy atmosphere of the tavern was weighing down on Gohan. He wasn't much of a socialite and bars and pubs weren't his idea of a good time. To say his social life was abysmal would be a very good description of it. It seemed Goten got all of the sociability genes between the two of them.

Still, he wasn't here to socialize. He had a job to do, but unfortunately the person he was waiting for was late. Again. Gohan had even purposefully set up an earlier meeting time for them, deciding to arrive an hour later and his contact was _still_ a no show. Perhaps he needed to schedule earlier?

Looking to his watch, Gohan then let out what felt like his tenth sigh of the night. It was nearing midnight already. Perhaps he should just leave.

"There you are!"

Jolted out of his musings, Gohan turned around to find who he was waiting for. Seeing Erasa in a dress was new to him; usually he just saw her in a blouse and pants. However, it looked as if the blonde had gone out of her way to look really nice. Very nice if he were honest and…and…

Oh crap, he could feel a nosebleed coming.

Giving her a small smile as he moved his hand to pinch his nose, he greeted her "You're here."

Erasa gave him a winsome smile, her head tilting to a side as her blue eyes sparkled with mischief. "Sorry if I made you wait. I couldn't find a parking space anywhere. Then I had to walk forever to get here. Care if we sit down somewhere?"

"Sure," was Gohan's answer. Immediately, Erasa latched onto his arm—causing a moment of embarrassment for the detective—and led them over to a table. Unfortunately, there weren't any chairs for them to sit at, though they would've needed some pretty tall chairs just to sit at it. Erasa merely elected to stand by it though, so Gohan had no choice but to make himself comfortable there, placing an arm on top of the table and leaning on it.

"So what's with the hat? I don't think I've ever seen you wear one," the blonde commented.

"It felt like a hat day," he replied, becoming aware of the fedora he wore. Honestly though, he rarely wore a hat; he just wore this one to make sure he wasn't recognized easily, though he got the distinct impression he was drawing more attention. It wasn't every day someone where a trench coat with a fedora in this time and place.

But at least he was getting some use out of his younger brother's gift.

"Well it looks good on you. You should wear it more often."

Gohan couldn't help but be flustered by the compliment. A nice dress, flirty attitude, and an attractive face was already too much for him. Need…to get…to work…

"Thank you," he murmured to her. "Though shouldn't we…"

He paused at that. Looking at her—actually looking at Erasa—he could see there was some strain in her features. Why hadn't he noticed that before? There was something on her mind and she was trying to bury it by flirting. "Is something wrong?"

"You can tell huh?" she replied softly. Raising a hand up to her face, she brushed her short hair to a side, more as a nervous habit than for any real purpose. "I think this case of yours is getting to be a bit much."

"The price of knowledge, huh?"

"No kidding. I feel like I'm jumping at every shadow I see."

"Not sure if this is comforting, but you get used to it."

A wiry smile appeared on the girl's face as she moved a hand to his upper arm, giving it a squeeze. "Not really, but thanks for trying."

"So do you still want to publish this story or are you holding off on it?"

"Oh, I want to publish it just to get it over with. I'm not made out for this cloak and dagger stuff. But you're right, me sending it to my editor would ruin your investigation."

Gohan nodded his head in understanding and gave her what he hoped was a comforting smile. "We're almost done so you don't have to hold on for too long. I talked with Krillen and he agreed to let you release the story when we make our move. First exclusive interviews and everything."

This time a genuine smile lit up Erasa's face. "Are you serious? Thank you so much! This'll make my career for sure!"

As much as he was enjoying this woman's joy, Gohan unfortunately had to bring up some business. Adjusting his weight as he leaned more of the table, he said "I do have to bring up that matter you mentioned yesterday—that piece of information you spoke of in my office. What is it?"

Erasa's face darkened immediately. Looking to a side, the reporter moved to lean on the table as well. "I…I think the people you're after suspect I know about them. There's someone living in my apartment complex that I think…no, I know works for them. I think they're using them to keep an eye on me or set up a possible hit. That's what you call it right? Or is it wacking?"

Gohan stared at her with a serious expression on his face. "You think these people are out to kill you?"

"Maybe. I don't know! It's just…I have these photos. And ever since I got them, I've noticed people looking at me, following me." Erasa paused as she looked at Gohan's face, a reserved look on her face. "I told you, I'm getting paranoid."

"Maybe you are," Gohan conceded. "But maybe you're right. Tell you what, if things start getting too much for you, we can move you somewhere else. You know where to find me."

"Thank you. Hopefully things get better. I don't know how much more I can take."

Gohan was just about to reply to that when something caught his eye. Focusing on it from the corner of his eye, he saw someone looking at them from across the room. The focused look on their face told the detective that they weren't here for a good time. It seemed they were going to have to cut their meeting short. "How about I walk you to your car?" he tried to say as casual as he could. No need to worry this poor girl any more than she already was.

"Already? But we just got here. We can at least have a drink or two."

Gohan gave her a nervous grin before saying "I'd like to, but I have some work I need to get done. For the case and all. Though if you really want one, I guess you can get one."

Erasa waved off his excuse. "I understand. It was be very gracious of you to walk me out."

Glancing to the person watching them, Gohan then asked "Do you know where the closest exit is? Not sure if we want to brave fighting the crowd to the front door."

"Oh yeah, the back door is just over there." At this, Erasa leaned back and turned her head to look at said door, the detective seeing it as the familiar red EXIT sign hung from it. Beginning to move towards it, Gohan then felt Erasa move next to him, leaning into his side as she placed an arm on his back. "This way, big guy. I'll lead you there."

Deciding that the blonde was in full control here, Gohan let Erasa guide him out the back door, though he made sure to keep their watcher in sight. Who ever there were, they were trying to tail them, but the crowd was proving to be a difficult obstacle. It was unfortunate though, that he couldn't pick out any discernable traits of them. The distance and the people between them was making more difficult than it should have been.

After going down a short hallway, the two found themselves in a messy alleyway. Seemed no one had taken the opportunity to clean the place up, the detective mused. A look to Erasa told him she didn't think much of the place. "So where's your car?"

"It's a few blocks over," she answered. It was then that Gohan noticed she hadn't moved from his side. Perhaps she hadn't noticed her guiding wasn't needed? Or she was staying close because she wanted to feel safe? Some other reason, perhaps? Well, what ever it was, Gohan was torn from being uncomfortable with his personal space being violated and thinking it was nice having a girl next to him.

Deciding to remedy the situation, Gohan took a step from the reporter and held his arm out. "Shall we then?"

A giggle came from the blonde and Erasa wrapped an arm through the loop of his arm. "Okay Mr. Chivalry, we'll play it your way."

It was several minutes later when the couple found Erasa's car in a nearby parking lot. Unlocking it and climbing in, the blonde looked to the detective and asked "Do you need a ride somewhere? I'd be happy to take you."

"Don't worry about it. Walking's good for you or so I've heard. A growing boy needs his exercise and all."

"Perhaps when this is all over, I can join you on a walk?" she suggested hopefully.

Seeing no reason to say no, Gohan nodded his head with a small smile. "Sure."

With a growing smile on her face, Erasa bid him goodnight and shut the car door. Her car engine revved to life shortly after.

That was when an exploding pain erupted in the back of Gohan's head, causing him to fall forward and hit face first against the car. Oh great, now he was seeing nothing but wild colors and stars. This was so not the time for it. Collapsing to the ground, Gohan could barely make out the sound of a door opening and a scream before a couple of hands grabbed him and dragged him away. A suddenly weightlessness occurred before Gohan felt the pavement hit him, his body rolling on it a couple times. Make that a correction, he was dragged and then tossed away like a piece trash.

Letting out a groan, Gohan lifted his head up from the ground, his vision clearing just in time to watch as a car sped out of the park lot. It took a second for him to realize the car belonged to Erasa. Shit, shit, shit!

"Hey! You alright man?" he heard someone call out to him. A moment later and a couple hands were pressed on him, trying to hold him on the ground. No, not now. He needed to get after that car!

"Just seeing stars at the moment," he grunted out lowly as he forced himself up. Fortunately the hands decided to change their action and helped him sit up. Looking to his helper and finding a middle-aged man, he then said "I need to get after that car. Can I borrow yours?"

"Dude, what's going on?" the man instead asked.

This was not the time for questions. Grabbing him by the collar of his shirt, Gohan jerked the man's face closer to his. "I'm an undercover cop and I need your car. Where. Is. It." he growled.

Okay, so the cop part was a lie, but he really had no time for Twenty Questions. Fortunately, the man seemed to get that something bad was going down and pulled his keys out, handing them to Gohan. "Yo-you'll bring it b-back, right?"

"In one piece," the detective grunted as he forced himself onto his feet. Fighting off a bout of dizziness, he found a car parked a few spaces down that had its driver's side door wide open. Taking that as a sign that that was the guy's car, Gohan stumbled over to it, and climbed in. Slamming the door shut, he revved the engine to life and tore out of the parking lot.

Unfortunately, there was no sight of Erasa's car anywhere. "Damn it!" Gohan roared as he slammed a fist against the wheel. Damn it all, after everything he had told that girl, that she would be protected and now look what happened. He gets tossed aside like a wad of paper and Erasa ended up kidnapped. Where were they taking her? Where could they take her? It'd have to be somewhere isolated, where Erasa couldn't get away easily. Or even better, hide her body should they decide to kill her.

That thought wasn't exactly comforting.

Okay, back up. No need to assume anything like that yet. First off, he needed to figure out where they were going. Residential places would have to be off limits—too many people could see or hear what they would do to Erasa. What about the business district? No, not that either—if who they thought was behind this took her there, it would be a direct link to them and no way would they risk making a mistake like that. That left industrial and even somewhere out of the city limits.

Taking a deep breath, Gohan focused on the parking lot, back when he caught sight of Erasa's car speeding out of it. He saw the car leaving it and heading in a direction, the same one he had gone on. Whether they made a turn or not since then was not in his recollection. But if he was correct, they were heading towards the business district. Beyond that would be the industrial zone. Okay, at least that was a place to start looking.

* * *

Where the hell did they go? Gohan searched the street from his windows in frustration. How could he have lost them that easily? It was maddening! The longer it took him to find Erasa's car, the longer they had her at their mercies and there was no telling what they planned to do with her.

Well, make that every bad idea that could come up to any bad guy. Unfortunately that was a lot. It was almost amazing how creative a person could get when they wanted to torture or kill another person. Ugh, that was not the kind of thinking he needed right now.

Turning down a street that was barely lit up by street lamps, Gohan pressed hard on the accelerator to speed through the street. It was obvious that there was nothing here he was looking for—most of the buildings were abandoned to collect rust and dust.

Coming up to a long chain-linked fence, Gohan absently took note of the Trespasser signs that hung from the fence. This was just another empty factory in a long line of them. The city seriously needed to consider cleaning this part of town up. Have it actually do something other than sitting around uselessly.

Gohan pounded the wheel, trying to end that line of thinking. There were more importantly things to worry about than being side-tracked by broken down buildings. Hello, there was a scared kidnapped woman out there! She was definitely one of those important things.

And that's when it came. As chaotic as his mind was with worry, his more analytical side caught sight of something unusual—namely a lighted window at the factory. Halting his thoughts, Gohan did a double-cheek to make sure he wasn't just seeing things. Yep, that light was still there. That begged the question of why an abandoned factory would have any lights on.

"I really hope that's you Erasa," he muttered as he slowed the car down, looking for a gate through the fence. Luck decided to throw him a bone then as an open gate appeared. Driving through it, Gohan began closing in on the building, looking for any other sign that it was in use.

He ended up finding Erasa's car soon after that. Staring it down, Gohan wanted to make sure that his mind wasn't playing tricks with. Stopping his car, he put it in park and jumped out, jogging over to the other and put his hand on the hood.

It was still warm. Good. Perhaps they had just got here. Looking around, Gohan hurried back to his car and pressed on. Just because he knew they were here didn't mean he should let them know he was too. Finding a place to hide the car didn't take long and once he did, the detective made his way to the factory, using the darkness of night to his advantage. It also didn't hurt that the place had little to no lighting at all thanks to the necessities of an underground operation trying to remain unknown. A well-lit, abandoned factory didn't fit into the category of being secretive.

Finding a broken window, Gohan entered the building there and found himself in a small break room, or at least what would have been a break room had this place still been in operation. A nice sheen of dust covered the place and part of Gohan wanted to go on a cleaning frenzy. There was a rotting wooden table sitting in the middle of the dust-covered room with a few rusted metal folding chairs situated around it. A rusted time clock hung from the wall, a slot beneath the clock face where workers would slide their time cards into so it would punch in their arrival and leaving times. There were a few time cards lying about the floor underneath the clock as well.

Carefully, Gohan made his way out of the room, finding himself in a large room filled with factory machinery. Conveyor belts, pipes, machines and the like covered the floor and walls. Most of the room was bathed in shadows, the only light source illuminating it was the moonlight pouring through large, cracked windows high up towards the ceiling. There was a catwalk that hung high above all the machinery, a set of stairs nearby that led up to them. Deciding for an aerial view, Gohan climbed the stairs up to the catwalk, wincing at the low ringing sound his feet made as they came into contact with the metal surface. Once he was up there, he slowly began searching the place for his targets.

Although Gohan tried his best to remain silent, his ears kept picking up the sound of his feet stepping on the metal surface of the catwalk—a tapping sound that wore at his nerves. There were other sounds too though, sounds that made the factory seem more foreboding than it was.

Yet the detective could see no other sign of life. Where the heck could they have taken Erasa? Was there more to this factory than he thought? Damn it, there was no time for this! Who knew what was happening to Erasa now? Gohan could practically feel himself going nuts over her safety, so much so that he could've sworn the tapping sounds he was making were growing louder, as if he was stomping his way down the catwalk, despite his best efforts.

Wait, that didn't make sense.

Gohan's eyes widened only for a moment when he realized what that meant. Grabbing onto the catwalk railing, he ducked his head down just as he felt a wind rushed passed him, right where his head would've been. Leaning forward, Gohan pushed down on the railing with his arms, picking his legs off the catwalk and bringing his knees up into his chest. Lashing out, he shot his legs out behind him, his feet slamming into a large mass and causing it to let out a pained grunt. Twisting his body around, Gohan set his feet down on the catwalk, facing his assailant with a determined expression on his face.

The guy was of lean build, his drab clothes and jacket hiding his muscles the detective knew he had.. He was taller than Gohan with handsome features and a short haircut. Gohan immediately recognized him. "Toma."

Toma merely scowled at him before raising an arm up, a bully club in his gloved hand and swung it at the detective. Gohan jumped backwards to avoid the swing, the catwalk giving out a loud, whiney protest. Toma took a step forward and tried for a backswing, one that Gohan ducked again as the club flew over his head.

This time, however, Gohan moved in close and threw a fist at Toma, imbedding it in the man's stomach. A grunt of pain came from the man, but it didn't stop him from taking another swing at the detective. This time though, Gohan raised his arm up and blocked Toma's swinging arm, stopping the club from hitting him. With the same fist, he then threw an uppercut at the man's chin—

* * *

"Wait, wait, wait," Videl interrupted, waving her hands in front of her as she tried stopping Gohan's story. "You know how to fight? Really?" she deadpanned.

"Uhh, yeah," Gohan spoke, sharing a confused look with Goten. "Both Goten and I do, actually."

"Sorry if I find that hard to believe," the lawyer replied sardonically.

"Our father knows how to fight. He taught both of us how to defend ourselves when we were younger."

Videl's eyes narrowed. "I thought you said he was a carpenter."

"Part time."

The Satan woman began rubbing her temples in an effort to calm herself down. "What ever. Just get on with the story."

"If you say so," Gohan shrugged. "Now like I said, I blocked Toma's swing and—"

* * *

With the same fist, he then threw an uppercut at Toma's chin, snapping his head back from the blow and causing him to stumble away. Instantly, Gohan closed the distance between him and Toma and grabbed him by his jacket. Pouring as much strength into his arms as he could, he threw the man over the edge of the catwalk, Toma's scream ringing out as he fell until he hit the hard cement floor far below. Gohan winced at the loud smack his body made, but for the most part he didn't care much about the guy. After all, he had just tried to cave his head in.

That was when a loud crash rang out, snapping Gohan's head to look further down the catwalk. What the hell was that? Was someone else still here? If so, they had to have heard Toma's scream. This was not good. Thanks to that scream, everyone knew he was here. It was pointless to pretend otherwise. Not caring for stealth anymore, Gohan ran down the metal causeway, trying to find where the crash had gone off.

Eventually, Gohan came across a wide open space in the room—a space that had been cleaned recently since there were no signs of dust anywhere near it. Faintly, Gohan thought this was probably the place where their target held their meetings, but that thought was smothered when he saw a body lying in the middle of the floor, a large puddle of blood growing out from it. Even from the distance he was at, he could tell it was Erasa.

Racing towards the nearest staircase, Gohan took the steps three at a time as he flew down them. It wasn't long after that that he was at Erasa's side, checking her for signs of life.

Gohan was thankful for his detective experiences at that moment. Had he not had them, Gohan knew he would've been overwhelmed with the horrified feelings he had at the sight of Erasa. There were bruises about her face, a bright red tone covering the skin around her mouth. They must've taped her mouth shut between kidnapping her and now. Though why remove the tape? A look further around her body showed various cuts and stab wounds, all from a knife. Though he couldn't be certain, none of them looked deep enough to kill.

Except for that long bloody line along her neck. Her throat had been slashed opened, her blood spilling out to make the huge puddle she laid next to. Geez, who ever she had been with, they didn't take it easy on her. It was then that Gohan looked into her eyes and knew she was gone. Her formerly bright blue eyes were dull and glazed over.

Gohan closed his eyes then, his face twisting into a mask of sorrow and grief. Why did this have to happen? After all that trust she had put into him, this is what Erasa got. Damn it. Damn it all!

Calming himself, Gohan then picked up her body and began walking towards an exit. Oblivious to his shirt soaking in blood, he carried the dead woman out of the factory. No way was he going to let her death go unnoticed.

* * *

When I first wrote this chapter, I had thought I should do my usual formatting for the flashback scene. Problem is it was longer than I thought it would be and I doubt y'all wanted to see an entire chapter in italics. So I left it like this.

Also, yes, I did take that "Part time" joke from Indiana Jones 4. What, it's a good line!

To Yup: Was this fast enough for you?

To Gabby: Thanks.


	16. Chapter 16

The detective and his group had been in that mansion for hours now. Looking at the large house distastefully from the driver's seat, Shugesh felt the incredible urge to tear the building down and force those three out. Despite his usual job of tailing people, he had never liked staring at building fronts, just waiting for his targets to move around.

That was definitely Borgos' thing. That guy was like a lump on a log. He could sit around and do nothing but stare for hours on end, only taking a break to get a bite to eat. The sound of chewing food was damn near the only noise the guy made, so when combined with staring at brick and mortar, that guy was a happy man. Why Shugesh had been partnered with him, he'd never know, but the boss seemed to think it was a good idea.

God this was boring. He needed some action, anything, right now. A random wreck a couple blocks down would've been good enough for him, just as long as it broke this mono…monot…that one word for same old shit.

"Rich people and there's big houses," Shugesh grumbled out, more to just make some noise than anything. His partner rarely talked so it was more like talking with a wall. A moving wall at times, but just a lump of quietness. "Looks like a waste of money to me."

Borgos grunted, basically his way of agreeing. Yeah, it was like all that caveman stuff in here. If neither of them bothered to shave their faces—part of the job after all—they could've been cavemen. Make that completely shave anyways, Shugesh would be dead and buried before he shaved off his moustache. It was his pride and joy at the moment.

Suddenly a loud sound went off behind the car, making both large men turn around in their seats to look out the back window. Staring into the darkness behind their car, Shugesh asked "You hear that?"

"Yeah," Borgos responded for the first time all night.

"I'm checking it out." Moving around in his seat, Shugesh took off his seatbelt and opened the car door, climbing out of the car. Seeing the darkness around him, the man reached inside his coat and pulled out his gun, pointing it out in front of him. Looking back and forth, he saw nothing that warranted his attention. A growl came from Shugesh's throat as he turned around to get back into the car. The first bit of excitement he had all night and there wasn't a living thing in sight for miles. Must've been a coon or someth—

That was when a loud pop went off. Jerking around to face the back of the car, his gun following his movement, Shugesh stared out into the night, once more seeing nothing. Slowly he began walking to the back of the car, his eyes switching from side to side, trying to locate anything peculiar.

Passing the truck of the car, Shugesh could feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. He could feel it. Something was wrong. But what? What the hell was going on out there?

Coming to a stop several feet away from the car, Shugesh turned around in a circle, once more finding nothing. When he faced the car again, he scowled at the silhouette of his partner through the back window. Was this guy lazy or what? All this crazy noise out here and he didn't even budge from his seat. Looking around once more, Shugesh snarled and headed back to the car. There wasn't anything out here.

Grumbling his way back to the car, he climbed in and slammed the door shut behind him. "What a pain in the ass," he said as he turned to look at Borgos. "I swear, if we have to stay here any long…"

He came to a stop. It only took him a couple of seconds to realize that Borgos' head was tilted to a side and his neck was wet with blood. "Jesus Chri—

Suddenly, a whirling sound was made and something thin wrapped around Shugesh's throat. With a jerk, he was pulled back into his seat, his hands flying up to his neck to remove the thing that was now choking him.

As a strangled choke ripped from his mouth, Shugesh thrashed his body around, his legs kicking up beneath the dashboard as he struggled. His fingers clawed at what he found to be a rope clinched tightly around his neck, shutting off his air passage. Damn it, he needed air! Now!

Wait, his gun! Shugesh immediately dropped his hand to his coat to pull it out. If he could get his hand on it he could shoot who ever was behind him! Unfortunately, he found the holster empty, causing his mind to go wild with panic.

Where was his gun? Where was his goddamned gun! He had it on him only a second ago! Where the hell was it! Giving another thrash, he felt his foot kick something small. Shooting his vein-covered eyes downward, his blurring vision caught sight of the gun barrel on the floor. He must've dropped it when this dickhole attacked him! Leaning forward, Shugesh reached for the gun, his fingers flexing as they grabbed at the weapon.

That was when he felt a strong jerk and his the back of his head slammed into the head rest. Pitiful gasps were pouring from his lips by now, the red lines covering the whites of his eyes growing bigger and bigger as large veins appeared all over his head. Air…he needed…air…

Shugesh's movements slowed down, his struggling coming to a stop. His eyeballs began rolling up into his skull as he made a last effort gasp for air. Then his body went limp, his world falling into darkness.

* * *

The backdoor on the driver's side of the car opened up, a figure dressed in darkness stepping out. Everything from about him was clothes in a black cloth. Moving a hand up to his head, he grabbed onto the black ski mask he wore and pulled it off, reveal a bald, green-skinned head. Two small antennas flopped forward until the came to a stop.

Closing his dark eyes, he began rolling his head until he felt and heard it pop. Oh, that felt good.

Suddenly, he heard a footstep nearby. He wasn't alarmed however, more like annoyed. Without opening his eyes, he said "Did you really have to use that firework, Nail?"

An amused voice answered him. "They're called snappers and they worked, didn't they? They allowed you to slit the throat of that passenger."

"You're just lucky that guy didn't put more effort into his search." His eyes opened and he turned to look at his partner. Nail was standing by the truck of the car with a smirk on his face. He looked exactly like him, from the black clothes to the features of their faces. Though he was slightly shorter, they could've easily been mistaken for twins. For the record, they were _not_ related in anyway. "What would you have done if he found you?"

"Kill him of course." At this, Nail revealed a pistol, a silencer cap attached to the barrel. "You really should be thankful I showed up. I had to leave my post to give you a hand with this."

"You try getting into a car without its two passengers realizing it," he grumbled.

Nail gave a small smile before moving around the car and walking to the front passenger window. Taking a look, he gave a low whistle. "You managed to slice his throat without a struggle. How'd you managed that?"

"Stuffed a chloroform rag into his face."

Nail gave him a look. "You managed to get into a car without either man seeing you and forced a rag into one of their faces without making even one noise. That's impressive."

"Child's play."

This time Nail shrugged his shoulders. "What ever you say, Piccolo."

Stretching his arms out, Piccolo relished in the feel of his tension-releasing body. "We have to dispose of the bodies. Get in the back seat."

"Yes Sir."

Piccolo growled. "And don't salute me."

"Would I do that?"

"You're doing it right now."

The back passenger side door opened. "You know, a little humor in your life wouldn't hurt. In fact, I hear laughter is the best medicine."

Piccolo opened the driver's door and hauled the driver out. "And I killed the man who said that," he grunted out as he dragged the dead man's body around the open back door. Reaching the seat, he worked the corpse into a heap on the backseat and slammed the door behind it.

"I have no doubt you would've done that," he heard Nail comment as he climbed into the driver's seat, closing the door behind him. "So where to?"

"The city dump. Once we dispose of our trash, we have to get back to our posts." Revving the car engine to life, Piccolo moved his hand to the headlight knob and twisted it. The headlights went off. Piccolo then turned them back on, then off, then on again. Finally, eh shifted the driving gear into drive and took off. "Everything is going down tonight."

* * *

The ticking of the clock was the only sound in the room. Gohan had finally paused in the story so he could refresh his drying mouth. Talking nonstop had that effect on him at times and a glass of water was needed to give him back his voice. Thankfully Krillen has seen to that sometime during the story. A rare act of service from a man of his status.

Once he had taken a large gulp of water, he continued on. "Once I got us out of the factory, I headed to the nearest pay phone and called Krillen. I wasn't too sure what to do with Erasa and I felt it would be best to consult him. He told me to come to the manor and called in Tien and Yamcha as well."

Glancing up to his audience, he half-expected a question from them. However, they had been relatively silent once he had delved into the night of Erasa's murder. Perhaps this would be no different. "Once we were all here the five of us put our heads together to figure out what we were going to—"

"Wait, five?" Videl interrupted for the first time in awhile. "Where did the fifth person come in?"

Gohan blinked at that before he registered the question. Crap, hadn't meant to say that. "Krillen's wife was there. She happened to answer the door instead of Roshi when I arrived. Couldn't keep her out of it when she saw the blood on my shirt."

Krillen then spoke up. "Between us all, we decided that Erasa's murder presented an opportunity to close in on Vegeta. Since half the city knows of his less than ethical stance on gathering evidence, we planned to use the girl's death as a way to gather evidence to his activities."

"You would use a dead girl like that?" Videl roared with rage. "How dare you! That was my friend and you used her!"

"And what do you suggest we do?" Krillen countered. "You're talking about a reporter that was kidnapped and murdered in an abandoned factory. There were no witnesses and our prime suspect is a man that knows his way through legal channels so well, he could hide a massacre from public eye. At least with our plan, we could make sure there would be an open investigation."

"So what was the plan?" Goten ventured.

"We would put Erasa's body out where it would be found," Gohan answered. "To make sure of it, Tien and Yamcha would be the first officers on scene. We just had to put Erasa somewhere on their route. That's why we put her in the back alley of the Devil's Tavern." At that, Gohan began to scratch the back of his head. "Well, actually it was me who put her there. Couldn't risk anyone else putting their prints on her."

"And your clothes?"

"Probably the biggest mistake I made," Gohan admitted. "I put them in a bag and tossed them into the dumpster behind my apartment complex. Would've been better to burn them. I hadn't realized that someone from the factory would've been waiting for me at the apartment. He must've dug the shirt out and put it closer to the crime scene."

"It worked out though," Krillen added. "With the investigation pointing right at Gohan, it made Vegeta step out and go after him. We've been getting all kinds of stuff on him and his group."

"So you meant for Gohan to be named the primary suspect?" Videl questioned.

"That's correct."

"So…" Goten started, clearly disturbed by this revelation. "So you wanted this Vegeta guy to bug Gohan's office. And then have those guys follow him where ever he went." Then a light went off in his head. "No wonder you weren't surprised by all of this! You wanted all of this to happen!"

"Something like that," Gohan acknowledged.

"But then…what about that bracelet? Where did it come from?"

Gohan crossed his arms over his chest. "That was a red herring. Since we knew those guys were listening in, we'd thought we would give them something to chase around blindly for." An apologetic look appeared on his face. "Sorry if I sent you on a wild goose case, but it was necessary for appearances."

"But what about all of the talks in the office?" Goten said, slowly becoming alarmed. "We talked about everything concerning the case! They'd know everything we do!"

Gohan gave him a small smile. "And that was exactly what we wanted. It was pointless to gloss over some things if we wanted them to know what we were up to. Of course, the occasional big revelation—like with Erasa's mother—had to be made. It was a bit of an effort to slowly feed them the information at times though."

"So then, where did that bracelet come from?"

"I think it belonged to the Lady Westingham. She seemed pretty eager to put it on Erasa."

Goten seemed troubled by all of this. "But…I could swear there were times you were really surprised by what you figured out. Like you were really figuring out this mystery out."

A sigh came from Gohan. "There were camera's set up in the building across the street recording every action I did. I had to pretend like I was figuring this whole thing out, make them believe I was working my way through it. They never would've believed I didn't know anything otherwise. So I purposefully went through all the motions of solving the case, reactions and all. I've found the best way to do that was to actually believe I didn't know a thing about the case and ignore every previous connection I knew existed." Gohan paused for a moment, looking thoughtful. "It was kinda like an exercise I had to do back in detective school now that I think about. The whole class had to pretend being reluctant witnesses, lying and what not, and one student had to figure out who was and wasn't lying. No one really figured out when I was or wasn't lying now that I think about it."

Goten stared at him. "You're…a very good actor."

"So then, where were you before Erasa's mother hired you?" Videl spoke up. "You said you found her waiting at your office, which means you had to be somewhere else when she showed up."

"I had stopped at my landlord's to pay my rent. Ended up spending the last few hours of the night at his place."

"And who is your landlord?"

Gohan looked over to Krillen. "Krillen owns the building so you could say he is the landlord."

A chuckle came from the woman's mouth. "All of this, it's connected to each other. Every little detail of this was planned out by you before the donut-eaters even arrived on scene."

"Well, not every detail," Krillen admitted. "For instance, we hadn't planned on Gohan's brother here showing up when he did. He turned into a positive for us, thanks to his genuine actions, so that worked out splendidly. Also, we hadn't put much thought into a lawyer, so you showing up on Gohan's doorstep was a surprise. Especially with your association to all of this."

That statement made Videl look uncomfortable, Gohan couldn't help but note. However, they couldn't sit here much longer. It was time to put an end to the conversation.

"That's about it," he said, straightening out his posture. "I know this is a lot to digest, so it would be best if we called it a night. Krillen and I have some work to do though…"

"Yeah, I believe it's best we stop here," Videl agreed. "Is it alright if I leave though? All of this is…so much to swallow."

"Go ahead." Taking a couple of steps to Goten, Gohan put his hand on his brother's shoulder. "Krillen can offer me and Goten a ride back to my place. You go ahead and take off."

Absently, Videl nodded her head and left the room. Gohan was assuming she could find her way out. Well, make that hope she found her way out. Otherwise she might run into Roshi during a midnight snack run and who knows what'll happen.

"Oh dear me, the pretty lady's come back for my lovin'!"

* * *

To Gabby: Mostly a trust issue. They didn't know if they could trust Videl to remain quiet about it. That and another reason.


	17. Chapter 17

The Lady Westingham stared out the large, second story window, a glass of red wine in her hand. Occasionally she'd tilt the glass from one side to the other, causing the wine to swirl around.

A set of headlights from outside of the gates had turned on a few moments ago. They sat there for a moment before flashing twice. Then they began to move down the street, the white beams fading away as twin red taillights shown their retreat.

The Lady's blue eyes hardened. Two flashes; two dead men. It was just as she had suspected. Those lackeys had the nerve to come to this house and spy on it. Oh well, the man she had assigned to keep an eye on them had dealt with them, just as expected. They may not have been important in the grand scheme of things, but their presence could have thrown a wrench into things. Unfortunately they couldn't find much to stick them with and they were just too much trouble to leave alive. Better to dispose of them and not worry of their possible interference. Those flashing headlights were a dead giveaway that both of the lackeys were now…well, dead. Ugh, her husband's tendency for puns was starting to rub off on her.

Raising her glass, she took a sip of her drink, continuing her contemplations. Though her husband had been reluctant to bring such a person into his taskforce, the Lady had persuaded him that such a presence would be required for this venture of his. People like Piccolo were not afraid to get their hands dirty or plunge deep into the dark underbelly that was this city's underworld.

And since they were going after such a world, they needed their own ruthless men. That was the way of the world unfortunately.

However, Piccolo didn't have much time to get to his next post. Her husband and the detective were buying him and the other taskforce members time to get in place. The suddenness of this operation had been unexpected since they had thought it would easily be a month before they had to move in.

Yet, when the detective showed up at the mansion with his lawyer and another young man in tow, phone calls had to be made to the others. Well, make that four phone calls and a beeper page. Piccolo couldn't be called since he was indisposed of at the moment. Regardless, everyone was aware of their jobs.

It was several minutes later that she heard a commotion from downstairs, followed by the lawyer living the manor stiffly. So Roshi struck again. One of these days, you mark her words, that old geezer was going to die. He was on her hit list that she kept around. How in the world did her husband even meet this guy, anyways?

Perhaps when this was over, she could hire Piccolo to make him disappear. Hmm, that wasn't a bad idea actual—

The slamming of a car door interrupted the Lady's musings. Taking another sip of her wine, she watched as the lawyer fired her car up and drove away. With her gone, that meant her husband and the detective would be on their way as well.

At this, the Lady drained her glass, setting it down on a nearby table. Someone would be by later to pick it up and make sure it was cleaned. For now though, she needed to see her husband off.

And hopefully not for the last time.

* * *

Tien sat in the driver's seat of the truck, his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes closed. He hadn't been getting much sleep the last few nights, especially with the case load he was handling. It was looking to be one of those long months just full of criminal activity.

And that wasn't counting in his other job.

It hadn't been long since he had received a phone call on his office line, informing him that he needed to get ready and that the night was going to be a long one. He was used to such long nights, especially after covering the night shift for the last three years. That still didn't mean he wanted some sort of excitement to happen when on night patrol, but this was a special case.

So with the paddy wagon in his possession, the keys hanging from the ignition, Tien just had to wait for final confirmation of his orders. Yamcha would be getting that call at some point and would come up to the truck to let him know. It was the protocol that had been established, though he hadn't expected it to be put into place so soon.

But that was just a minor inconvenience. He was quite content to rest here in the cab, just waiting to receive word. A nice power nap could do wonders for—

The passenger side door opened with a shrilly protest, jolting Tien's eyes open. Yamcha hauled himself into the seat, slamming the door behind him. "Just got the call," the scar-faced officer told him, a cheeky grin lighting up his face. "It's show time!"

Wordlessly, Tien reached for the key and revved the engine to life. Grabbing the stick shift, he popped the clutch and truck began rolling forward, Tien pressing down on the accelerator pedal to speed up. Eventually he asked "You got the list?"

Yamcha held up a couple sheets of paper. "Right here with names and addresses."

Good. It was time to rumble.

* * *

It was several minutes later, once Videl had left the mansion without being accosted by an overzealous Roshi, that Gohan, Goten, and Krillen found themselves back in that small office, calmly letting the silence pass them by.

Well, to be more exact, Gohan and Krillen were comfortable with it. Goten was slowly losing his mind.

"So what is it you have to do?" the younger Son finally broke the silence. His impatience was making his body fidget with anxiety, his head looking from his brother to the wealthy short man.

Gohan and Krillen looked to each other. "Well, I guess we can't put it off any longer," the older Son mused. Looking to his brother, he said "We're going to be taking down our suspect tonight. We hadn't expected everything to fall into place this soon, so all of our agents are taking a little time to get into their positions."

Goten stared at him with wide eyes. "Really? It's going down now?" Then his excitement overcame his surprise. "Can I help? Is there any way I can help?"

Gohan moved around the desk and opened one of the drawers. He then pulled out a small six-shooter and popped out the bullet chamber. Reaching into the drawer again, he began pulling out bullets and loading one into each chamber. "Unfortunately, it would be best if you stayed out of this one," he said in a stern tone. "I don't know what's going to happen tonight and it would make me feel a lot better if I knew you wouldn't be getting caught up in it."

"But Gohan!" Goten protested. "I want to help! I need to help!"

With the gun loaded, Gohan flicked his wrist sharply, causing the bullet chamber to fly back into the gun with an audible click. "I'm sorry, but no. These are dangerous people and I won't let you get caught up in it."

"But!"

"Sorry kiddo," Krillen interrupted, his own gun in his hand. As Gohan had been talking, the man had pulled the gun out of the dresser in the corner of the room, loading it as well. Setting it on top of the dresser, he kneeled down and opened two of the bottom drawers. Reaching into one of them, he pulled out a black bulletproof vest. "Here," he called out to Gohan as he tossed the vest to him, Gohan catching it with his free hand. Pulling out another vest from the other drawer, he placed it on top of the dresser and began unbuttoning his shirt. When that was done, he pulled his shirt off and placed it next to the dresser, picking up the vest and putting it on. "I'm in charge of this operation and I say you're not coming," he directed to Goten. "While I appreciate everything you've done to help us, this is not the place for civilians."

Though he wanted to keep protesting, Goten gave a resigned look, one mixed with disappointment. "So you're going to be dropping me off at the apartment?"

"Nope, you'll be staying here," Krillen said as he finished securing the vest on him. He then began pulling his shirt back on, his fingers nimbly buttoning the shirt. "This should be over by sunrise, but neither of us is taking the chance that our target's men will snatch you up and use you as a hostage. They won't come here for you cause I have one of the best security systems in place to keep them out. Our top priority is to catch this person with as many of their associates as possible along with keeping ourselves nice and safe. The moment you started helping out your brother, they put a target on you in case they would ever have to use you."

Goten was frowning by now. "You keep saying suspect and person. I thought you said were going after that Vegeta guy."

Gohan and Krillen paused at that before looking to each other. "I guess we did," Gohan acknowledged. By now, he had his own vest securely on and under his own shirt. He was now putting his trench coat back on. "Sorry about that, we're used to having to describe him in vague terms. Anyone could be listening, even if you think you're all by yourself."

Goten slowly nodded at that. "I guess I can understand that." Then his eyes narrowed. "Why is it I get the feeling you're not telling me the whole story, even after everything you just told me and Videl tonight."

There was a loud "Ha!" that echoed through the room. "I gotta say, this kid is sharp," Krillen said, his voice laced with humor.

Gohan gave a small smile at that. "He's starting to fit into all of his conspiracy stuff." Taking a step to the opposite side of the desk, Gohan opened a drawer and removed a file. "This should clear up any other questions of what we're doing tonight." Setting the file down on the desk, Gohan looked Goten in the eye. "This whole drawer has every bit of evidence I've collected throughout this case. This file in particular," here he touched the cover of the file, pressing down on it, "has every photograph I collected in Erasa's apartment. It has a lot of incriminating evidence, things that resulted in her death."

Goten frowned. "But I thought you kept everything in that safe in your bedroom."

"I did, but that was only temporary. I've been moving everything here over the course of this entire investigation. I didn't trust that anything would be kept safe there after awhile."

"So…you would take it to your office just to show Vegeta's guys that you kept stuff there. Like a decoy. Then you'd bring it here for safekeeping."

"Like I said, sharp," Krillen crowed.

"But why tell me all of this now? I mean, this whole thing isn't over yet, right? Wouldn't it be better to tell me all of this when your name was cleared and not running into a possible gun fight?" His eyes narrowed then. "Unless this was all part of some plan you have."

"You're on the right track," Gohan answered. Glancing to Krillen, who had a pocket watch out and was check the time, the detective felt it was time to end this conversation. If everything went right, they'd be able to finish it when he got back. "Like I said, all of your answers are in that file drawer. Feel free to go through it all if you like. I don't have to tell you to make sure it all goes back in there, right?"

Goten nodded his head quickly. "Yeah, yeah, I'll make sure it all goes back in there."

"Good." Walking around the desk, Gohan made his way towards the door, Krillen already walking through it and waiting for him in the hall. Once he passed through the doorway, he turned to close the door behind him, catching sight of Goten standing up next to the desk and opening the file. The door closed with an audible click shortly after that.

"I hope you know what you're doing," he heard Krillen mutter to him.

Gohan didn't respond to the wealthy man until they began making their way down the hall, heading for the front door. "About Goten? Yeah, I do."

"You know I'm not comfortable letting him going through all of our evidence. He could easily misplace it or try and destroy it."

"I'm done misleading my brother," Gohan said, the men turning a corner into another hallway. "And there's nothing to worry about concerning the evidence. I made sure we have multiple copies of every video tape, report, and photograph. Trust me on this. Goten has nothing to do with this other than stumbling into it. Tien and Yamcha made sure of it, just to make sure."

Krillen raised an eyebrow at that. "You made sure your own brother was clean?"

"I know Goten's clean. Yeah, he has his underground contacts, but those two looked into him for the sake of the rest of the guys. No one was just going to rely on my word concerning my own flesh and blood at this stage of the game."

"Then I'll trust you on this," Krillen relented. "And what about your lawyer?"

* * *

Videl parked her car on the side of the street and let out a deep sigh.

She had figured there were things the detective was hiding. She hadn't expected all of this though. The task force, the Westinghams involvement; hell, even all of the evidence he had discovered. Admittedly, she wasn't too surprised to find out about someone investigating Vegeta, but this was more thorough than she could have ever guessed.

Opening her car door, she slid out and shut it behind her, locking her car a moment later. Then with purpose, she strode to the building in front of her and walked through the front door. The lobby of her workplace came into view a second later, but she didn't stop to take in the dimmed atmosphere of it.

Yeah, she had told Westingham and Detective Son that she was going back to her place, but she had other business to attend to. Hey, they had seen fit not to be straight with her, so in her mind she didn't have to be straight with them. Besides, her boss wanted to know where this case stood and she needed to report to him. How much she should reveal though, was a problem. How much could she reasonably tell without infringing on the limits of confidentiality?

Then again, when had that ever stopped anybody?

Finding the staircase, Videl climb the stairs up to the third floor. Her time for thinking was coming to a close soon and she was mentally preparing herself for the meeting at hand.

Exiting the stairwell, she found herself in the familiar setting of the office. There were desks positioned all over the place, each one littered with paper stacks and file briefs. However, unlike the dim lighting of the lobby and the well-lit stairwell, everything here was in darkness. Well, everything except the corner office that belonged to her boss.

His office light was on, the light flooding into the room through the glass window on the door. Videl stared at the bolded, painted letters on the glass for a moment before knocking on the door and opening it.

From his desk, her boss stared at her with dark eyes. "You're late," Vegeta said.

* * *

To Gabby: It's gonna take a bit of getting used to, ain't it?

To darrin criss: Thanks.

To Guest: I appreciate your honesty. Though as you pointed out, this isn't professional work, so it's probably too much to expect work similar to Christie or Sheldon. I'm not used to having this much intrigue and mystery in my stories, so this whole thing has been a learning experience. It's a good stepping stone for better work I think, for more honed work. I just didn't want to give too much away throughout the whole story and I felt I had at times. In a way, I guess you could say that Gohan was even keeping things away from the readers as well as the people he interacted, since a story is told after the fact rather than as it's happening. A poor excuse to be sure, but I do wish I would have made some alterations before posting. Again, thank you for your critique.


	18. Chapter 18

Vegeta bored his eyes into Videl, an impatient look on his face. "What took you so long? You were supposed to be here over an hour ago."

Videl bowed her head in deference. An agitated Vegeta was not a man to cross. Yet. "I was at the Westinghams'. The detective took me there for a debriefing."

Vegeta finally looked something other than annoyed or serious; he was interested. Leaning forward in his chair and leaning onto his desk, he questioned "What did you learn?"

Videl took her time walking to the desk, sitting down in one of the chairs in front of it. Crossing her legs, her hands clasped around the knee of her topmost leg. "Westingham is gunning for you. He's in charge of a federal taskforce set up to look into your activities. They've been gathering all kinds of information on you for over a year."

"What!" Vegeta bellowed as he shot out of his chair, knocking it over as he pressed his hands into his desk. "What activities? Did they tell you? Explain yourself, now!"

Videl gave him a slight glare. "Oh come on. You and I both know you aren't exactly the most ethical guy around. Of course they would look into you after awhile."

"But a federal investigation?" Vegeta snapped. "For what? Some questionable wiretaps and surveillance activities? Tell me, which part of that requires this kind of scrutiny? It's the only thing they could possibly have a problem with and even that they would have a hard time picking up on!"

"Well, I would start out with the employees you have. Quite a few of them have criminal records so it is suspicious to find them working for such a reputable man such as yourself."

Vegeta narrowed his eyes at her. "Those men know the corrupt world of the scum we take down. It's the only reason why they're here, at _your_ suggestion, might I add." He leaned back and turned around, picking up his chair and setting it back up. Sitting down on it, he began to contemplate this latest development. After a moment, he then asked "What else did you learn?"

"That it seems like Detective Son is innocent," Videl said with a hint of resignation. It wasn't really a thought she enjoyed expressing.

Vegeta raised an eyebrow at her. "And you know this how? What's your proof?"

"From what the detective and Westingham told me, they fixed the scene to implicate Son. To draw you out and collect evidence on your investigative strategies."

"But what about the shirt? There's no way they could have fabricated that!"

"Turns out that was the shirt Son found Erasa with. Her blood got on it when he carried her out and dumped her body in that alleyway."

"Wait, Son _put_ the victim's body there? What on Earth possessed him to do that?"

"To make sure that the case would be picked up. Then they controlled every aspect of it to corner you and you fell for it". A smirk appeared on Videl's face. "And you went for it, hook, line, and sinker."

The dark-haired woman half-expected her boss to growl, but was surprised when he looked contemplative. "They really thought this through, didn't they?" he remarked. "You're right, it did succeed. All the more reason to wrap this case around Son's neck and hang him with it." He paused for a moment. "We need to get Shugesh and Borgos in here. They've been on the detective's trail the entire time. They have to have something more to break this guy's back."

Videl began to nod her head when something occurred to her. When she was pulling out of the Westingham Manor, she didn't recall seeing Shugesh's car around. She supposed it was possible that those two just hid better, but Shugesh wasn't one of those people that preferred stealth. There was a reason why Gohan spotted him from his office window and it wasn't because of detective work. It was because Shugesh was too obvious with his observations. Borgos was no help either, that painfully quiet man.

Meanwhile, Vegeta had picked up his office phone and dialed in a number. Waiting several moments, he then said "Borgos, we need to meet. The second office in half an hour, got it? Good."

Videl watched as he firmly placed the phone back in its cradle. Vegeta hadn't paused for a second during that call, just sending out orders like they were commandments. In a way, they were. Shugesh and Borgos wouldn't disobey him now nor ever. For men with their own very long rap sheets, even they had people they wouldn't cross. "Did you even get him?" she asked him.

Vegeta gave her a look. "He wouldn't say a greeting even if his life depended upon it. The message got through, like always. Now come on."

Videl looked started at that. "You want to take me with you?" It was a rare instance when Vegeta brought someone with him to one of his "private meetings." That wasn't to say he hadn't done it before, but a person saw more blue moons in a lifetime than Vegeta actually bringing someone with him.

"You're our eyes and ears on this. You need to hear what those two have to say so you know what to look for when you meet with the detective again."

Videl rolled her eyes. "Fine, let's get this over with." Standing up, she waited for Vegeta to pass by her before following after him, the lights going off and the door closing behind them. They made their way out of the building in short order, arriving at Vegeta's car rather than hers.

The first thing that stuck out to her was it was very luxurious. Videl wasn't some car enthusiast that knew everything about a car, but even she knew this thing had cost a pretty penny. And of course, the District Attorney Vegeta would rather be caught dead than be seen in anything less than the best quality available.

However, Vegeta didn't go for the driver's door. Instead he opened the back passenger door and opened it, climbing in and leaving it open for Videl. Following his lead, Videl soon found out the reason for this choice: sitting in the driver's seat was a hulk of a man, dressed properly in a black suit and a driver's cap.

"The second office, Nappa," Vegeta ordered once Videl closed the car door behind her. Immediately, the car came to life and they were on their way.

"Pretty big driver you have," the dark-haired woman commented after awhile.

"He does more than just drive," Vegeta grunted back.

Was that so? There were only so many uses for a driver as large as Nappa. He was practically hired muscle, most likely a bodyguard. It was the only possibility that made sense to Videl, though that was sort of the point when a certain recommendation had been placed on Vegeta's desk. Why make a brute like Nappa only a chaffer after all? "Does he break legs or something?" she ventured.

"Only to people I find annoying." His eyes moved to look at her. "Though I should warn you, I have been feeling irritable lately because I was kept waiting by one of my employees. It'd be in her best interest if she kept silent, if you catch my drift."

Videl scowled, but took the hint. He truly was an aggravating man. Someone really needed to knock him off his high horse one of these days. She would pay to have front row seats for that.

The rest of the ride remained in silence after that. Nappa proved to be a decent driver, not to mention fast as they arrived at the "second office" early for the meeting. The office itself was a former store—of what, Videl had no idea—shut down for one too many health violations if the torn piece of paper taped to the wooden doors were any indication. Apparently the store owners hadn't gotten it through their heads that asbestos was not allowed in buildings unless it was being removed. Once the store closed its doors for the last time, Vegeta had begun rented it out, using it as a meeting place for his more unethical practices.

Not that she could plead innocent either; Videl had done such stuff here too.

As Nappa pulled the car to park against the curb, Videl opened up her door and stepped out, Vegeta climbing out after her. The engine died a moment later, Nappa's hulking form emerging from the driver's door. Without pause, Vegeta strode to the building's front door, pulling a key out from his coat pocket and inserting it into the lock. As he unlocked the door, Videl idly glanced at the boarded up windows and door, graffiti giving their dull wooden surfaces color. Though it looked like the boards were there to keep the windows and glass door from being broken, its current use was to make sure no one could spy on the meetings that occurred in this place.

Once the door was open, the three of them entered the building, Nappa shutting the door behind him and standing at ease a couple feet to the side of it. The room itself was bare of any decoration or furniture. The formerly white sheetrock that composed the walls was discolored from water damage, courtesy of a leaky roof. That didn't account for the occasional crack or hole that was most likely caused by previous owners during their occupation or their forced move from the premises. The cement floor was in better shape, discounting some of the small chips here and there. On the opposite side of the room, directly facing the door was a small hallway that led to two restrooms and a door that led to the back of the store.

No one talked for several minutes as they waited for Shugesh and Borgos. Videl had taken to leaning against a wall, her arms crossed over her chest as she waited. Vegeta had chosen a spot in the middle of the room to wait, his eyes gazing at the plain wall before him.

However, when the appointed time came and went, Vegeta's frustration began to show. "Where the hell are those two miscreants?" he asked out loud.

"Not everyone's as punctual as you are," Videl spoke up.

Vegeta turned his head to glare at her before looking back to the wall. "No one keeps me waiting. Ever. Shugesh and Borgos always get here on time."

That much was true, Videl had to admit. When ever Vegeta ordered someone, they always complied. If he told them to jump, they would do it before asking "How high?" Such was the command the man held. Videl was more likely to give leniency with other people, but then, she had more patience than Vegeta had.

Another growl came from the DA. "They better show up soon or else I'll be nailing their hides to my office door."

"They won't be showing up."

Videl's head shot up and turned to the hallway at the back of the room. Standing there were Gohan and Westingham, looking at the three of them with stern gazes, their hands resting comfortably in their coat pockets.

Vegeta whirled around to face them, looking like an enraged bull. "What the hell are you doing here? Get out!"

"Sorry, can't do that," Westingham answered taking a couple steps forward.

"This is private property! You have no cause to be here. Now get out before I have you arrested for trespassing!"

"You're assuming we don't have probable cause to be here," Westingham retorted. Pulling his hand out, Videl saw a folded piece of paper in his hand. Bending down, he then shoved it across the floor, the paper coming to a stop against Vegeta's immaculately polished shoes. "Read that. It should clarify everything."

Vegeta glared at the shorter man before bending down and snatching the paper up. Unfolding it, it became clear that it was several pages, a document of sorts. Vegeta read through the pages, soaking in every word he found, interpreting their meaning.

That was the least of Videl's worries at the moment. She was supposed to be Gohan's lawyer and having him find her with her real boss was not good for her cover. It was practically annihilated at this point. What could she possibly say that would make him believe that she wasn't here because of Vegeta? Say that she had been called in by him to negotiate a plea bargain? Did he even know that she worked for Vegeta? It wouldn't surprise her in the least by now, considering she had been given an eyeful of his abilities. Yet despite her anxieties, Gohan hadn't even looked at her the entire time he had appeared. That still didn't settle well in her stomach. She had to make him believe otherwise.

But what could she possibly say?

The sound of shuffling pages continued to fill the room as Videl began to frantically pick her brain for any possible situation that could turn this scene around. There was the plea bargain idea, but she doubted that would fly very well. That matter could be settled over a phone call so meeting up in a dump like this was unnecessary. She could always play dumb and say that she had been contacted by Vegeta, but had no clue as to what he wanted. Again, doubtful that would work. Heck, she might as well say she saw something suspicious going on and tailed it here, where she encountered Vegeta and his bodyguard. Yeah, that would work when Pluto became a planet again.

There had to be something she could do. Darting her eyes around the room, looking for some kind of inspiration, she found that most of the attention of the people in the room wasn't on her, but the documents in Vegeta's hands. Gohan and Westingham just watched him pour over the pages. Nappa seemed confused by the whole thing, but he held his ground by the door. His eyes would occasionally look to the sheets of paper in his boss' hands, but otherwise he was keeping an eye on the unexpected guests.

None of this gave her any inspiration though, frustrating her further. What the hell could she say that would put her in a better light? No, wait a second. She didn't have to say anything since anything she could say would instantly be suspect. In fact, it would be better for Vegeta to speak for her. Any reason he could come up with that could explain why the two of them were in the same building would be more accepted by the detective and his boss. Add to the fact that Vegeta liked to have any conceivable advantage he could get and her role as a mole was just such an advantage, he was less likely to toss it aside.

Or he could become desperate and decide to take her down with him if this situation went bad. Then she'd have to prepare her own excuses against his accusations. That put her back at square one. Hmm, perhaps she could claim that he was trying to set her up? To break down the defense they had been working on by putting her in a compromising situation. Considering Vegeta's track record, that wasn't below him. Perhaps she really could turn this around.

It was about then that Vegeta finished reading the documents. "So, that's the way it's going to be," he stated, looking up to Westingham and Gohan. "Go ahead, do what you have to do."

Videl looked at him inquisitively. What the heck did those pages say? And…why was Vegeta acting so calm about it? These two guys had been investigating him after all; she had told him that much. And the stuff they had been looking into wasn't the most flattering of things, mind you. Things that even she was involved with and didn't want exposed to the rest of the world.

"We intend to," Gohan spoke up, the first words he had said since he had appeared in the room. Copying Westingham's previous action, he pulled one of his hands out, revealing a set of handcuffs in them, holding them out in front of him. He took a step towards Vegeta, but then swung around to face Videl.

"Videl Satan, you are under arrest."

* * *

To Gabby: Has what comes next been satisfactory lol?

To Guest: Thanks?


	19. Chapter 19

It seems last chapters sudden twist caught a lot of you off-guard. Have to admit, I feel quite proud over that. But now it seems answering some questions are in order. Go on and dig in now. You know you want to.

* * *

A deer-in-the-headlights look appeared on Videl's face as she stared at the gleaming set of handcuffs that dangled from the detective's hand. Every pair of eyes was on her, waiting for her next move. "Wh…what do you mean I'm under arrest?" she sputtered out.

"Exactly that," Krillen answered. "We have sufficient cause and evidence to put you into police custody pending your indictment for several counts of smuggling, distribution of illegal substances, assault, kidnapping, and witness intimidation." Then as if he was struck by an afterthought, he added "Oh, and for the murder of Erasa Rubba."

Videl's eyes had narrowed by this point, shifting from Gohan to Krillen. "Is that what that document says?" she ventured.

"Something like that."

Her shoulders sagged somewhat, an arm rising up and towards Gohan. It was almost as if she were reaching for the very cuffs that would take away her freedom—that was until her index and middle fingers closed the distance between them and her thumb. She snapped her fingers as her posture straightened out. "Nappa, if you would be so kind."

A clicking sound was made, causing everyone in the room to look to the behemoth of a man by the door, a large pistol in his hand, which he was pointing right at them. Fearlessly, Videl strode over to him, confident that no one would make a move to stop her. It was almost out of character for her had Gohan or Krillen not known who she was. "Well played," she said out loud to no one in particular. "I should've known this whole investigation was aimed towards me rather than the District Attorney.

"However, in light of these accusations, I'm afraid that none of you can leave this building alive."

That's when Nappa pulled the trigger of his gun, a loud roar echoing through out the room. Krillen went flying back from the impact the bullets hit him with, a scream tearing from his lips.

Immediately, Gohan dropped his cuffs and crouched down, pulling out his own firearm and returning fire. His first couple of shots missed Nappa outright, drawing the attention of the huge man as he turned his cannon of a gun on him. Videl had frozen in her steps upon hearing his gunfire, her body flinching from a bullet that passed near her head and shattered the glass window at the front of the store.

That hesitation didn't last long as the woman raced out the front door, Nappa firing his gun at Gohan. Refusing to be a sitting duck, Gohan pushed off the floor with his bent legs, diving to a side as he rolled on the floor. Chunks of the wall and floor behind his previous position exploded with a burst of debris flying into the air. As he came back to his feet, Gohan fired another couple of rounds at Nappa, missing once more, but his second shot hitting the hulk in the shoulder of his shooting arm.

Nappa gave out a cry of pain from the sudden hit, his gun jerking up to point at the roof as he fired a random shot. The ceiling exploded with debris falling to the floor from the shot.

However, instead of taking another shot at the man, Gohan held his fire. While he would've loved to fire another shot to incapacitate the man, someone else got in the way of his line of fire. Vegeta had slowly moved towards Nappa side during the entire exchange and when the larger man jerked back from being shot, he had leapt at him, knocking the gun out of his hand with a well-placed fist. Not even pausing in his attack, he jumped up into the air and leveled his "driver" with a punch to the face, the blow causing Nappa's head snap to a side and his body to stumble into the door frame.

However, Nappa wasn't going to go down that easily. With a roar, he swung his injured arm out, the back of his huge fist slamming into Vegeta's chest and knocking him off his feet and onto the ground, skidding on its smooth surface. With a clear shot now, Gohan shot his last two shots into Nappa's right leg, both bullets hitting his thigh.

With a cry, Nappa fell to his knees, both of his hands going to his leg and holding it gingerly as blood began to trickle down his pant leg. Closing the distance between them, Gohan leapt at the man and tackled him to the floor, landing on Nappa's broad chest as they crashed onto the ground.

Pushing himself up, Gohan held his gun high into the air before swinging it down, the butt of the pistol hitting Nappa in the forehead and causing his head to jerk back, the back of his head colliding with the floor. Despite the blow, Nappa look more dazed than anything, a groan coming from his mouth. Raising the gun again, Gohan hit him once more with the butt of his gun, Nappa's head snapping back again and hitting the floor. This time the blow was more successful, knocking the large man out cold.

Upon seeing this, Gohan let out a sigh as he slumped off Nappa's body and onto the floor. Letting the adrenaline in his system die off, he breathed in deep breaths to calm himself.

"It's about time," Vegeta said, back on his feet as he straightened out his suit. With a glance to Gohan, he then strode over to the front door and opened it, scowling at what he saw before closing the door. "That bitch stole my car."

Gohan sat himself up and looked to the DA. "I think we should be more worried about Krillen instead of your car."

Vegeta didn't seem to hear him, or probably just ignored him. Gohan was betting on the latter. "That was my favorite car too."

Regardless of reason, Gohan sighed at that. Seemed Krillen's welfare was not high on his priorities. Getting to his feet, he walked cover to Krillen's prone form, looking down him as the short man took in deep, loud gasps. "You okay there, Krillen?"

"I was shot at…by a frigging…cannon…" the man panted out. "Of course, I'm not okay!"

Gohan looked at Krillen's chest and winced. Three of Nappa's shots had hit him right in the chest—though the protective vest made sure they didn't penetrate. However, the force of the bullet impacts had definitely done some damage. They'd have to go to a doctor to find out what exactly was done, but that would have to wait.

Walking over to the set of handcuffs on the floor, the detective picked them up and walked back over to Nappa. Staring at his massive bulk, Gohan then looked up to Vegata and asked "Can you give me a hand with this guy, Vegeta?"

Vegeta turned his head to look at him. "Do I look like a man that does heavy lifting?"

"Well then, you should've chosen a smaller man as a driver. Now get over here and help me roll him over."

The DA rolled his eyes and walked over to him. Between the two of them, they managed to get Nappa on his stomach and his arms handcuffed behind his back. They also used a second set of handcuffs to restraining his legs, so that he wouldn't be moving around until he was in the custody of the police.

"So now what?" Vegeta asked. "Are you just going to sit here or are you going after our runaway?"

"We know where she's going, so there's no rush," Gohan replied. "She's going to take her time getting there, but it's where she'll end up. Everything is going according to plan." A glance to Krillen and he amended "Well, almost everything."

"Vegeta," Krillen spoke up as he slowly pushed himself up, wincing as he did so. "I thought you said you had a few people in your office that weren't working for her."

"I didn't expect her to get Nappa," Vegeta huffed as he crossed his arms across his chest. Then a rueful look appeared on his face. "But I suppose it shouldn't be too shocking. I basically let her recommend everyone in the office and for someone as dumb as Nappa, getting him on her payroll wouldn't have been too hard to do."

"Well, Tien and Yamcha should be nearly done picking up all of the other suspects," Gohan commented. "And the other two should be in position by now, ready in case Videl slips through our fingers."

"Then we had better get going then. I'm gonna take such pleasure when I force her face down on the hood of my car as I snap those lovely metal bracelets on her."

"You two go on ahead," Krillen said. He had managed to move himself to the nearest wall, sitting next to it as he leaned his back against its surface. "I'll keep an eye on Nappa here."

Gohan nodded as Vegeta moved to retrieve Nappa's gun. Pulling on one of his gloves, he picked it up and carried it over to Krillen. Tossing the other glove to Krillen he said "Put that on. Can't have you leaving finger prints on our attacker's gun. You can stand guard with it until we come back for you."

Krillen frowned as he stared at the offered gun. Pulling out his own, he asked "I already have mine. I don't need to use that one."

Vegeta looked at him as if he were an idiot. "I don't have a gun on me because I couldn't rouse any suspicion on our perp. And since guns have already been pulled, I'm going to need yours." Glancing to Gohan, he then added "You saw Son's poor shooting just now. There's no way I'm going into a potential shoot out relying on his aim. I'd take Nappa's, but then I'd be removing evidence from a crime scene. It'd be easier to have you sit on it and use it for self-defense if need be. Now put the glove on, take this gun, and give me yours."

Krillen slowly nodded his head as he put the leather glove on, taking Nappa's gun from Vegeta and handing him his own. With that exchange done, Gohan and Vegeta made for the front door, leaving the building and heading down the street in the opposite direction that Vegata, Videl, and Nappa had arrived. They made a turn at the street corner and walked a few more blocks before arriving at Krillen's car.

"You couldn't have parked any closer?" Vegeta growled as he opened the front passenger's side door.

Gohan climbed into the driver's seat as Vegeta sat down in the passenger's seat. "We didn't want to risk you guys seeing the car when you drove in," he explained, not improving the DA's mood.

"Just get us to that blasted warehouse she likes so much. The sooner, the better."

Gohan glanced to the man as he inserted the key into the ignition and revved the engine to life. He wasn't too sure what to say to that, but he had a feeling this aggression he was sensing was coming from his stolen car. So he said "Sorry about your car."

Vegeta glared at him. "Shut up and drive."

* * *

Goten stared down at the photographs and the reports, trying to soak in everything he was seeing. It was crazy—outrageous even. He was practically at the point where he had no idea what was truth and what was lie anymore.

Why was he even involved with all of this?

"It's a lot, isn't it?" he heard an inquiring voice ask from behind him. Looking up, he turned his head around and found a beautiful blonde woman standing by the door, looking at him impassively. If Goten hadn't been overwhelmed by all of this cloak-and-dagger stuff, he would've immediately tried to charm her with his friendly personality. However, knowing his luck she'd be neck-deep in all of this stuff too.

So instead of trying to impress her—as gorgeous as she was—Goten softly replied "Yeah, it's a lot. Umm…who are you?"

"I'm the Lady of the House," she answered, strolling over to him and sitting down in one of the chairs. Oh great, she was also married too. At least he hadn't embarrassed himself by hitting on her. "And I figured you'd need a little help understanding this all."

"I'm not dumb," Goten immediately retorted. In fact, this woman's husband had said he was smart before he left, so there!

The Lady didn't seem amused by that reply. "So you understand the whole story then? How and why the taskforce was put together to take down a suspected black market dealer?"

Okay, so perhaps he had been a bit short. Hey, you would've felt the same way if you were always being compared to your smarter brother all the time. "I'm sorry," he apologized. "It's just I'm used to having everyone think I'm some kind of idiot just because I'm not as smart as my brother."

"I see," she stated.

A silence fell over them, causing Goten to scratch the back of his head nervously. "Umm, could you tell me that story?"

"If you really want me to."

"Yes, I think I would."

The Lady took in a deep breath before saying "About a year ago, the District Attorney Vegeta came to my husband with the suspicions that someone in his office was involved in some very illegal activity. Considering the DA's reputation, my husband laughed and said he wasn't at all surprised. Vegeta didn't do much to dissuade that notion, but he did point to other activities that seemed to be directed by his office that he claimed to have no previous knowledge of.

"So my husband and Vegeta went to a meeting with some government committee, which one I have no clue. There's always some committee for every innocuous situation conceivable. It was there that they presented their suspicions and my husband was appointed to head a taskforce to bring an end to this activity."

"And he chose my brother and those two policemen to be on it," Goten added.

The Lady nodded her head. "Along with three others. There are a couple men called Piccolo and Nail who led the investigation into the actual black market, along with a few other things that will not be named. They handle the more dangerous elements, so you can say they're as much our protection as well as our backup."

"That's five," Goten said. "Who was the sixth member?"

"Vegeta."

Goten stared at her for several moments before running his hands across his face. "How much of that story did they tell me was altered," he finally asked after awhile, removing his hands from his face.

"Some," the Lady admitted, "but since you've seen those pictures, I think you can guess as to why."

Goten glanced to the photos. Yeah, those were a very good reason to alter a story, but to what end he had no idea. And why they would tell all of this to the very person who was the subject of those photos was beyond him. Turning back to the Lady, he then said "So those officers were to keep tabs on the police station while my brother went around investigating this thing. You said these guys called Piccolo and Nail watched your back as well as look into the more dangerous stuff. So what did Vegeta do?"

"His job was to allow these activities to continue, even fester inside of his office. Basically, we wanted them to get comfortable so they would start making mistakes. When ever someone on our suspect list offered up a potential hire, Vegeta would authorize the hire. We allowed the DA's office to become a front for this illicit organization, but unfortunately, we weren't able to figure out who was the boss. As it turned out, the boss didn't even work there until a few months ago.

"You mean Videl."

The Lady nodded. "It was pretty brilliant I have to admit. The whole time Vegeta was staring down at a couple Assistant DAs—though it turned out they both worked for Videl—she just slipped right under his radar by becoming a low-level paper pusher and worked her way up. When it came to the hires, she would have her flunkies make the recommendations and no one would be the wiser."

"So why were they even using the DA's office as a front?"

"So they could keep an eye on any legal confrontations they might get involved in. From there they could influence the Police Department and even the Mayor's office to put an end to any investigation concerning them. If someone stepped out of line, they ended up being charged with a crime. It was the perfect vantage point."

"So why not just run for District Attorney? Why bother working up the ladder?"

"You don't become the DA just by running for it. You have to have a record and qualifications. Videl was building up that part of her resume until she could run."

"Then why did Videl become Gohan's lawyer if she was doing that? That part doesn't make sense to me." Truly, if you were the boss of a black market organization, why would you get involved with a murder trial that could implicate you?

"Because she wanted to steer the murder towards your brother. She wanted to make sure no one would could trace that reporter's murder back to her and the moment she and her lackeys found something incriminating, they would used it—exactly according to our plan."

Goten narrowed his eyes. From the way she was talking, it sounded like this woman was also involved in this whole charade. After going through the reports, he had figured the Lady had been used as a cover for their last unknown member. Yet the way she spoke seemed to contradict that thought. "You were apart of the plan to frame my brother."

The corner of her mouth twitched to form a small smile. "I suppose they left me anonymous. In answer, yes I was. The night Gohan came to us covered in blood, Vegeta, Tien, and Yamcha were called in. Between the six of us, we came up with the plan and ran with it. It turned out to be the bait we needed to draw out Videl.

"According to Vegeta, when it reached his office that Gohan was the leading suspect and had been thrown in jail, Videl had come to him and presented a plan to keep tabs on Gohan, namely her being his lawyer and watching his every move." The Lady then snorted in a very unladylike fashion. "The ass had the gall to wonder why he never considered doing that before and agreed to her plan. So Videl went to Gohan and claimed she was with the Public Defender's office and was a friend of Erasa's that wanted to make sure her trial went without drama."

Goten nodded his head as he felt himself following this story better. "So when did you realize she was the boss you were after?"

"Turns out Erasa actually had evidence that linked Videl to the organization, specifically those photos on the desk. I'm still not sure how she got them, but those photos were what put her on Videl's hit list and eventually got her killed. Gohan ended up finding them in her darkroom when he checked out her apartment. When we realized she was our target, we devised a plan to bring her down and put it into action."

"And that plan was?"

"Hit her with a curveball and make her panic—specifically tell her about our taskforce and let her try and figure out how to cope with it. As you saw, Videl wasn't expecting Gohan to be apart of the taskforce, much less there being one at all. We just fed her false information that we were going after Vegeta so she could plan on using him as a fall man. During that exchange, we sent Tien and Yamcha to make arrests of all her associates in the DA's office. The story we fed you was to buy them time to get as many as they could while Piccolo and Nail got into position in case something went wrong. Right now, Gohan, Vegeta, and my husband are arresting Videl. If everything goes right, they'll be back here by morning."

Goten let his eyes gloss over as he let this information soak in. These people had planned this all to a T with a couple exceptions here and there. Yet, where did he fit in with all of this? Gohan had been surprised to see him at his office so that was definitely unplanned. "Where do I fit into all of this?" he asked. "You've been planning all of this so carefully, but I get the feeling you weren't expecting me to show up."

"You're right, we weren't. Unfortunately, we ended up using you as a pawn to get to Videl. We needed her to believe that story we fed her long enough so we could make a move and that's where you entered our plan. We thought if we had someone there with genuine reactions, she would be more likely to believe the story. After all, the best actors are the ones that don't know they're acting. Sorry."

Goten stared at her unapologetic face. Her tone had sounded repentant, but her face was as still as it had been from the moment she entered the room. It was unnerving.

"Umm, another thing. What about that bracelet on Erasa's arm? Where did that come from?"

"Oh, that was mine," the Lady answered, sounding very dismissive.

Goten looked flabbergasted at her. "You just gave away an expensive piece of jewelry for no reason?"

The Lady snorted, another response that surprised Goten. "I've been trying to get rid of that tacky thing for a long time. It was a gift to me from some rich family in a different city." A small smile emerged on her face then. "I tried several times to 'misplace' it, but unfortunately my husband kept finding it, all except this one time."

"What happened then?"

"The family that bought it was coming for dinner and it would have been in good taste to wear their gift. I had finally managed to put it in some place Krillen couldn't find it, but then he called in your brother to find it. Apparently, Gohan had impressed my husband sometime earlier in the day and he dragged the poor boy down here to find it. Unfortunately, he did."

"And that was Gohan's first job," the young Son boy summed up. A moment later, he then added "And you took this chance to get rid of that bracelet by putting it on Erasa to use as a distraction."

"It was very convenient if I don't say so myself."

Goten smiled wryly before turning his head to stare at the wall. "I hope everything is going okay out there."

"Me too," she agreed. "Me too."

* * *

To Guest1 (AnonymousVoid): I hope that answered your questions and suspicions. Though knowing you, you'd still wouldn't trust Gohan with any of it.

To Guest2: Thanks. Complicated seems to be the right word for it.


	20. Chapter 20

I hope none of you are sensitive to cursing. I think I set a personal record for curse words in this chapter. I've never been too comfortable using them in a story, but they were just perfect for their scenes.

* * *

Tien and Yamcha stood on opposite sides of the door, their backs against the wall and their pistols held up in front of their faces, the barrels pointing to the ceiling. The hallway was dimly light, pretty much leaving them surrounded by shadows. Glancing to each other, they both nodded their readiness.

Shifting from the left side of the door to stand in front of it, Tien holding his gun in front of his face as he quickly prepared himself for his next action. Lifting his leg up, he grunted as he kicked the door as hard as he could, causing the door lock to rip apart of the door frame with a loud crack, the door swinging wide open. Immediately his gun was thrust forward, the barrel staring into the room as the bald man took a step back.

Yamcha copied his action, peeking into the room at an angle from his position. A second later and he hurried into the room, searching for any possible threat. Tien was right behind him, looking in the opposite way as his partner.

They found themselves in a small hallway, a small table with various envelops and a set of car keys on it standing near the door way. There were a couple of paintings hanging on the walls, but nothing they paid attention too. The hall split into two directions, one ending in a darkened living room and the other leading down another small hall and a closed door.

"Yamcha," Tien whispered, nodding his head to the closed door. Yamcha immediately made his way done the hall, the the bald man staying at the hall entrance, keeping an eye on him. As soon as he got to the door, Yamcha copied his partner's earlier move and kicked the door in, using the momentum from the kick to move into what he found to be a bedroom.

Immediately, something moved around the corner of his eye, causing Yamcha to jerk back. That turned out to be a fortunate move as a baseball bat barely missed his head, colliding with the door frame with a loud crack. Instantly, Yamcha passed his gun from his right hand to his left, his right shooting up and grabbing onto the bat, pinning it to the frame. Lunging into the room, he found a man in only a t-shirt and boxers standing near by, both of his hands on the bat, trying to shake loose his weapon while Yamcha did his best to keep the bat pinned down.

With a growl, Yamcha leapt at the man and tackled him to the floor, the two men landing in a pile of body parts. Somehow the baseball bat went bouncing across the floor, which left Yamcha trying to disentangle himself from his attacker. However, he quickly realized the man was grabbing at him—or more specifically his gun, trying to rip it from his grasp. Swatting at the grabbing hands, Yamcha tried to move the gun away, holding it as far away as he could while the man practically climbed on top of him to get it.

"Alright, that's enough," a voice range out, a clicking sound being made soon after. This caused Yamcha to let out a sigh of relief as the man froze on top of him. Tien really had impeccable timing.

"Now get off of him and stand on your knees, hands above your head," Tien ordered, the man doing as he told. The moment Yamcha felt the man's weight lift off of him, he slid further way from him and sat up, pointing his gun at the man. A glance towards the door revealed Tien pointing his gun right at their target.

"Turn around and place your hands on the bed," Yamcha then ordered, the man doing as told. Once he saw the man's back and his hands pressed firmly onto the mattress, Yamcha holstered his gun and pulled out a set of handcuffs. Getting to his feet, he move to stand behind the man and reached down to grab his left hand, jerking it behind the man and cuffing him, the right hand following soon after.

"Do you know who I am?" the man demanded, turning his head to look at them. "Do you know who I work for? It's the fucking District Attorney, so what every bullshit charge you have against me won't stand up when he gets through with it. I hope you're ready to give up your jobs, you—"

Tien walked up to the man and slugged him in the face, the man's head slamming down onto the mattress as he cried out. To make sure he didn't get back up, Yamcha placed his forearm on the man's back and began resting his weight on him. "Quit resisting arrest," his partner said seriously. Yamcha was barely able to repress his snort. Reaching to his back pocket, Tien pulled out a folded piece of paper and slapped it down in front of the man's face before walking off. "Here's your arrest warrant. Read it and memorize."

"I'd do as he says," Yamcha advised. "But you should already know that, being a legal expert and all."

"I can't read it from this angle," the man complained, the force of his breath moving a nearby ruffle in his comforter.

"Is it the angle, or the fact that you've never read a single legal document ever?" Yamcha questioned.

The man sputtered at that. "How dare you! Of course I've read one! Hundreds of them in fact! I work at a law office, ya know!"

"What was his job again, Tien?"

Tien was standing by the man's closet, looking into it. "He's a gopher."

"Wow, impressive," Yamcha exclaimed. "Think he can show us how he goes for coffee and donuts? Maybe he can even tell us how Vegeta likes his coffee. I'm thinking black."

"Four sugars. He strikes me as a man that acts tough, but has a nice soft spot for sweets."

"You're both wrong!" the man cried out. "He likes cream in his coffee."

"Oh ho! We were both wrong," Yamcha exclaimed.

"Looks like," Tien replied as he pulled a pair of pants out of the closet. "Help him into these." The pants were tossed through the air and landed with a thud on the bed.

"I'm not putting anything on!" the man declared heatedly. "You can't take me anywhere I don't want to go!"

"That's where you're wrong," Tien said. "That arrest warrant says you're coming with us—and if you want to stand around in a jail cell in nothing but your boxers, that's your choice. Personally, I wouldn't want to have only my underwear as protection against possible sodomites, but then that's just me. So what'll it be?"

The man was silent for a moment before he whined "You haven't even read me my rights."

Yamcha rolled his eyes. "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot obtain one, one will be appointed to you. Now, if you have nothing else to say, I hope you're ready to go meet your cellmates. They're quite eager to meet you and your underwear."

The only response he got was a muttered "Give me my pants."

"Wise choice," Yamcha smirked.

In short order, they got the man dressed and out of his apartment. Though he tired his hardest to stop moving, Yamcha and Tien kept him walking until they reached the street. There they marched him to the back of an armored truck, one the man was surprised to see.

Moving to the doors, Tien unlocked it and swung the doors open, revealing several men seated on benches and restrained. Some of them were still fully dressed in either suits or street clothes while others were wore only pants or some form of pajamas. However, all of them looked slightly roughed up. "I think you might recognize a few of your friends," Tien said out loud as the man stared into the truck in awe. "They said the same things as you did. As you can see, they weren't any more successful than you were."

Yamcha forced the man to climb into the truck, setting him down several seats away from the door and restraining him down, specifically with leg irons and a couple of chains that fell from the wall of the truck. Attaching the chains to the man's handcuffs, Yamcha then backed out of the truck, shutting the doors closed behind him and locking them.

"Another one down," Yamcha declared cheerfully. "How many do we have left?"

"Three, I think," Tien answered as he began walking to the driver side door.

Walking to the passenger side door, Yamcha opened it and climbed in. "And the others are getting the boss girl," the scarred man clarified as he shut the door behind him.

"That's the plan."

"Well then, to the next stop!"

* * *

The engine roared as the car sped through the streets. Videl grasped the wheel tightly, her knuckles turning white from the pressure.

How did she miss it? All of those clues, hints, and gut instincts had been sitting right in her face. Hell, she had even been told everything about this sting operation and yet she completely missed that she was the target. Unforgivable; inexcusable! She should've picked up on this thing the moment it had been concocted in that brain of Vegeta's.

The man hadn't always taken her suggestions into consideration. In fact he had always snorted his derision at anything she had said. She had to have her guys higher up in the office get anything she wanted done. Then one day he had changed his tune. She had felt something was wrong, but that opportunist in her had blinded her to his ploy. And then that detective! She never knew how convincing of an actor he could be and he played her like fiddle.

The blaring of a car horn sounded off next to her as she flew through an intersection, ignoring the red light that shown. "Learn to drive!" she shouted in the car, aiming her impatience at that idiot of a driver. Didn't he see she was on the run here? For the love of Christ, his pathetic excuse for a life was an inconvenience that she couldn't afford at the moment. She had to get to her stronghold, the one place those guys couldn't reach—

Videl hit the breaks of the car, skidding to a stop in the middle of the street as her tires squealed in protest from the sudden action. A second thought a moment later made her turn the wheel and slowly edge the car to the side of the road, coming to a full stop on two side-parking spots. Fortunately no one had been driving fast enough behind her to come plowing into her backside when she had done that.

Swearing under his breath, Videl gripped the wheel harder as a few beads of sweat dripped down her face and neck. She couldn't go to her stronghold, not anymore. She had allowed herself to be played into this situation and that rotten detective and his team were expecting her to go there. In fact, they probably had those two police officers sitting outside of it right now, just waiting to arrest her. As blindly as she had been led, she refused to fall into that trap. There wasn't a place in the city she could honestly go without being caught.

Closing her eyes, she took in a deep breath. Holding it for a moment, she let out the air in a rush, her eyes flying open with a determined look appearing on her face. So if the city wasn't safe, Videl had no other choice other than to leave it. Hit the highway and never look back. This part of her operation was affectively shut down.

Considering how thorough these taskforce guys had been, it was likely they weren't just targeting her tonight. They probably had gotten most, if not all of her associates at the law firm by now. Anyone left would have to be abandoned because any call she made to them would only help them pinpoint her location, even at a pay phone. There was no telling what happened with Nappa, but Videl couldn't imagine any scenario playing out where Westingham would just let that big man walk out unscathed. Those other taskforce members she hadn't been told much about had to have been close by as backup.

And as for Shugesh and Borgos, they probably had met a similar fate to the others. Arrested the moment they reached Westingham's Manor and any trace of them removed before she had left. Indeed, this truly was an every-man-for-themselves situation.

Now that she was calm, she looked over her shoulder to make sure there weren't any nearby cars about to pass her before hitting the gas pedal and pulling back onto the street. Heading to the first intersection she came too, she made a right and gunned the engine, racing down the road as quickly as she could, ignoring any and all traffic lights regardless of color. She needed to get to the highway fast and—

Suddenly, glass from the windows shatter and shot all over the inside of the car, shards pelting Videl's face and body. The entire passenger side of the car caved in, the headlights of whatever car or truck hit her staring at her accusingly. Her head whipped around from side to side as she lost control of the car. She could feel herself spinning around, her hands slipping off the stirring wheel. Her skull came into contact with the window a couple times, each time sending a screaming jolt of pain throughout her brain. Faintly she could hear the screeching of tires and the blaring of car horns.

And in the middle of all that, Videl felt herself plunge into darkness.

* * *

"Son," a gruff voice spoke. "Son, come in."

Gohan picked up the walkie-talkie he had resting between his legs. It was the only place he could have put it where he had easy access to it. It wasn't like Vegeta was going to hang onto it. "This is Son."

The gruff voice—Piccolo's he recognized—responded with "We have a problem."

Gohan glanced to Vegeta, who was looking back at him questioning. "Copy that," the detective replied into the speaker. "Tell me what's going on."

"The target is not going to be making it to her destination. You need to head downtown."

Suddenly, the radio was snatched from Gohan's hand, Vegeta's glaring into the receiver. "Explain," he ordered.

"The target had an accident at 9th and Juniper," Piccolo said, not the least seeming put off by the change of speaker and tone. "She was broadsided while running a red light, heading towards the highway."

Gohan jerked his head up. The highway? Videl wasn't supposed to go that way, she was supposed to go to that warehouse of hers. While downtown was one way to get to it, the warehouse was nowhere near 9th and Juniper. In fact, it was almost as if she changed direction.

Oh, okay, that made sense. Videl must've realized that they were expecting her to go there and decided to hightail it out of town. A good and totally unexpected decision on her part—too bad she didn't quite make it.

Vegeta, on the other hand, didn't seem to care about that development. "That bitch totaled my car!" he roared with rage. "When I get my hands on her, I'll wring every last drop of blood out of her dying body for every dent I find!"

Yeeesh, compassionate Vegeta wasn't. Then again, Gohan had never gotten attached to a car that was stolen. Reaching over to the walkie-talkie, he pulled it out of Vegeta's grasp and replied "Thanks. We're in route." Pausing, he then said to Vegeta "Again, sorry about your car."

"Not as sorry as she's gonna be," Vegeta growled. "When I get done with her, not even that idiot she calls her father will be able to recognize her! I'll get her locked up in a cell so far underground, she'll have to become a mole just to see two feet in front of her!"

Gohan refrained from mentioning that moles couldn't see. It was best to just let Vegeta get all of his anger out of his system. Instead, he decided to offer a suggestion to help Vegeta in his plot for vengeance. "You know, you could add Grand Theft Auto to her list of charges."

"Say another word and that bitch is going to have company in that hole I bury her in."

Hmm, that didn't sound like a good thing. Perhaps it was best to go back to the original subject—the one that wouldn't piss his passenger off any more than he already was. Speaking to the walkie-talkie, he then asked "Do you know what hit her?"

A growl from Vegeta told him he asked the wrong question. Okay, he really needed to get away from the car subject for the sake of his continued health.

However, instead of getting an immediate response, Piccolo remained silence for several moments. Then a deep chuckle come from the receiver, making both men stare at the radio curiously. "You're not going to believe it."

* * *

To Guest 1: I originally had another role for Frieza actually, but I never got around to using it.

To Phill: It definitely would have been better if I had been in another person's POV, like an assistant or something and just stayed with them throughout. However, I'm pretty sure I did put something of Videl's thoughts in the current light during the Police Station scene. I could be wrong though.

To Guest 2: At least the second half I did lol.


	21. Chapter 21

Faint sounds were the first thing to bring Videl out of unconsciousness. It was a steady murmur, almost as if a crowd of people were talking and doing so from far away. Then the pain set in, particularly a nasty headache and a tender neck.

She felt a presence at her side, but she had no clue as to its identity. Slowly, she opened her eyes and her vision piece by piece came to her. She was sitting in a car seat, her seat belt off, though she could've sworn that she had been wearing one previously. She became aware of a dull throbbing on her left side, the reason as to why she had no clue. Almost in a daze, she focused on the sight before a cracked car windshield.

There were police cars everywhere, their red and blue lights flashing hypnotically. There was also a couple of ambulances, a few emergency workers jogging from the trucks to some scene to her right somewhere. Cops were standing about, either talking with each other or were near the sidewalks of the street, making sure any bystanders didn't wander onto the scene, whatever scene this was. No wait, this had to be some sort of accident, right? And seeing as it all was surrounding her, she must've been in some sort of accident. It was beyond her as to why she was involved in one though.

A long, soothing sound came from her left, making Videl turn her head and look. There she found an emergency worker standing next to her, bending his knees so he could look at her better. His lips were moving, but Videl couldn't make out what he was saying. Well, at least that was until he got to the end of whatever he was saying.

"I'm sorry, but could you say that again?" she asked, her voice surprisingly raspy.

The man gave her a wry smile. "I said to take it easy Miss. You've just been in an accident and you should just rest right where you are."

"Oh. Okay." There wasn't much she could say other than that. She was truly lost at the moment. "Umm, how did I get into an accident?"

"Well, as far as I can tell, you ran a red light and got broadsided by that truck." At this, the man pointed to something on her right, but Videl just felt too sluggish to look. It was taking most of her mental faculties just to focus on this man, much less anything else. "It was a textbook T-boning if I ever saw one," the worker continued. "After you were hit, you went spinning around until you came to a stop. Sometime during that you lost consciousness. You're probably even feeling a severe headache at the moment, along with some whiplash."

"Is that why I'm hurting?" Videl wondered out loud. In some part of her, that explanation made sense to her, but it was taking too much energy to really understand it.

"Yes, Ma'am."

Languidly, Videl turned her head to look to her right. It was there she found a large truck sitting several feet away, its front end smashed to hell. In fact, her vision seemed to be becoming sharper because she was noticing the ruined side of her car. Wow, what a wreck.

Oddly enough, there was a huge crowd of cops at the back of the truck. She had no idea as to why, but the back doors were wide open and men seemed to disappear into it and reemerge for some reason. There were other men that would emerge from the truck too, usually dressed in odd outfits; some were wearing suits while others that looked like the guys had been dressed in the dark. Very odd.

Her attention soon turned towards the front of the truck once more. The doors of the truck were open and there where two men sitting on the ground near the truck's cab. They both looked okay from what she could tell and seemed to be police officers since they were wearing police uniforms. Yet something was nagging at her as she stared at them. In fact, those men were looking familiar to her the longer she looked. One man was bald and the other had long, shaggy, black hair. Though the second man was looking away from her, she could still see the side of his face and could make out the presence of a scar.

And that's when it hit her. Those were Officers Shinhan and Yamcha. They were men working with Detective Son and Westingham on a taskforce made specifically to capture her. Oh crap. Crap, crap, crap. She had to get out of here before those two recognized her and arrested her.

Immediately, Videl turned in her seat and tried to get out of the car, the emergency worker throwing his arms out and grabbing her by the shoulders in an attempt to stop her. "Whoa, whoa Miss. You need to stay right where—"

"Get the _fuck_ out of my way," Videl growled at him, causing the man to jerk back in surprise. She tried again to get out of the car, but the worker recovered enough to force her to stay in the car seat.

Any sort of civility was gone from his voice and expression by this point. "Miss, you have to stay right where you are," he ordered in a stern tone.

Videl lost all of her patience at that moment. Balling her right hand into a fist, she punched the man in the face, landing the blow on his nose. She could feel cartilage snap against her knuckles, a torrent of blood shooting out the man's nose as he yelped in pain. Finally getting to her feet, Videl shoved the man aside and began to stagger away from the car, no known destination in her mind other than to get as far from here as she could.

Unfortunately, the police proved to be more alert than she had hoped. Immediately she was surrounded by men in blue uniforms, a couple of them restraining her by grabbing her arms and shoulders. Due to the throbbing in her left side though, Videl couldn't put much resistance to their restraints, the dark-haired woman's body going limp as she let out a weak cry of pain.

"Hold her right there!" a loud, deep voice shouted above the commotion, a voice that Videl recognized and flinched at. Oh, this was just going from bad to worse, wasn't it?

Turning her head to look to a side, she saw an enraged Vegeta weaving his way through the maze of police cars in between her and him, Gohan keeping up with him from behind. Once the two were passed the cars, Vegeta looked over to the car Videl had been driving and seemed to lose a step in his stride. Then his rage became cold fury.

Whipping his head to look at her, he then demanded "I want this bi…this woman arrested." When the cops around her just looked at the District Attorney blankly, he snapped "Right now, you empty-headed fools, before I have every donut store closed within the city limits for health violations!"

That got a reaction out of the men, one of them jerking out a pair of handcuffs and walking up behind Videl. The two policemen holding her forced her arms behind her as the handcuffs were slapped around her wrists, the cool metal biting into her skin. One of the braver men though, stepped over to Vegeta and asked "If you don't mind Sir, why is this woman under arrest?"

"Because she's the suspect of a federal probe, something far above your pay grade." Tilting his head to Gohan, he then said "Detective, I want you to take custody of the suspect."

It was then the policemen hardened their stances, glaring at Gohan. "What the hell is he doing here?" one of them demanded.

Vegeta merely said "He's working under me. Now if you don't let him do his job, I will have you under arrest for interfering in a federal investigation."

Apparently being under the threatening gaze of Vegeta was enough to weaken any resolve the officers had. Gohan walked passed them and grabbed Videl by one of her arms, removing her out of the grasps of the two policemen restraining her, and directing her to move towards Vegeta. Looking at the men for a second longer, Vegeta then turned around and began walking back the way he came, Gohan and Videl following him.

"A little harsh there, weren't you Vegeta?" Gohan commented as they moved out of the policemen's hearing range.

A scowl appeared on the DA's face. "I just had my favorite car stolen and damaged beyond repair. I'm not in the mood to mess around with the morons in the police department." He then turned his head to the sight of the wrecked paddy wagon and grimaced. "I better make sure none of those arrested men slip away." Without even waiting for a response, he changed direction headed right for the truck.

Gohan and Videl just kept going walking away from the scene. Neither of them said anything and that was just fine by Videl. She wasn't in the mood for any conversation.

They soon arrived at a very expensive-looking car. Directing her to the backseat, Gohan opened the door and guided her into it, shutting the door once she was seated inside. Staying by the door, Videl watched as the detective moved to the driver's door and opened it, sitting down in the driver's seat.

It was silent for a few moments before Videl had to ask "There isn't anyway you're letting me go, is there?"

Gohan remained looking forward. "Afraid not."

A moment of silence passed. "You know, I really would've done my best job for you."

"Is that so?"

Videl found herself nodding despite the man not looking at her. Or maybe he was using the rearview mirror to watch her; that was definitely a possibility. "I hate doing substandard work," she said. "It always leaves me feeling dirty on the inside when I do."

"For what it's worth, I believe you," Gohan offered. "A bit counterproductive that you would set me free, though."

"Possibly," she admitted. "But say I got you off. You could have struck me off what ever suspects list you had. Why would a suspect of yours fight to free you when it would be more beneficial to just send you to jail and cut you out of the picture?"

"I can see your point," he acknowledged. "Unfortunately for you, Erasa caught you in the act and made evidence."

A melancholy feeling filled up Videl, causing her to bow her head in sadness. "Out of all of this, that's the one thing I regret. I wish she hadn't had to die"

"She didn't have to, you know."

"Gohan, that choice was out of my hands the moment she found out about my operation. The people working under me would've done who knows what to her had they let her live. As much as I hate to admit it, death was the best way for her."

This time, Gohan turned in his seat to look at her. "How could being stabbed to death be her best choice?"

"They could've made Erasa vanish. With her whereabouts unknown, they could have taken turns raping her and beating her. Torture and destroy her mind and body. And if you want to go further, they could have sold her into the sex trade. There's plenty of worse fates than what happened to her."

It was several seconds later that Gohan nodded his in agreement. "I see your point."

It was silent after that for awhile. Eventually, Gohan decided to break the silence this time. "You know, Erasa thought you were just spying on her."

"If only that was just it," Videl said ruefully. "And even then, I'm not sure I would've ever done anything to her. Try and stop her investigation maybe, but that would've been the most I would have done. Could have done."

Gohan frowned. "There's always a choice."

This time, Videl looked at him as if he were a little child. "You do realize who the people are that work for me, don't you? They're not the people you usually see welcoming new neighbors into the neighborhood, they're the kind of people that would sooner stab you in the back the moment you gave them a chance. In this kind of business, you don't usually see nice, kind-hearted people. Those sorts of people end up getting chewed up and spat out just like everyone else, faster than everyone else."

The detective had nothing to say to this as he turned around back in his seat and stared out the windshield once more. After awhile, Videl said "I guess I'm going to be put away for a long time."

She saw movement in the rearview mirror, Gohan's eyes looking to it and reflecting it so she could see his attention was on her. "I'm sure you'll be out in no time."

* * *

"Detective cleared of charges," Goten read out loud, leaning back in Gohan's chair as he held a newspaper in front of his face. Propping his feet on top of the desk, he continued to read "Federal inquiry uncovers corruption inside of District Attorney's office."

"Not a bad headline," Gohan commented from the bathroom, the sound of running water also being heard.

The younger Son ignored his brother. "A year long probe into the District Attorney's office was concluded last night when the leader of an illegal black market organization, along with several of her associates, was arrested. The District Attorney Vegeta had noticed unusual activities within his office and brought it to the attention of federal authorities. A joint taskforce headed by Vegeta and Krillen Westingham was convened to investigate these activities, which resulted in the arrests of over a dozen people, all with connections to the DA's office."

Goten fell silent then as his eyes began skimming the article. With a huff, he tossed the newspaper onto the desk just as Gohan walked out of the bathroom, drying his hands off with a towel. "It doesn't say anything about your involvement in the article. What a jip!"

"I'm not as well-recognized as Vegeta or Krillen, so of course they wouldn't mention me," the older Son replied.

"But the headline pretty much shouts that you were innocent!" Goten exclaimed, grabbing the paper again and facing it to Gohan, tapping an impatient finger at the headline. "How can they write an entire article without mentioning you when they do in the headline?"

"You'd have to ask the journalists or editors why. I don't care either way," Gohan shrugged. "I've been cleared of all charges and have a solved case to file away. No way does being refused credit ruin my day."

Goten frowned at that before flipping the paper around and looking at it again. "You'd think they'd at least say more about your charges being dropped," he muttered. A moment silence passed before he said "Oh wait, it says it hear in a column at the bottom. Charges dropped on accused detective."

"See? They reported it," Gohan said as he pushed his brother's feet off the desk. "Satisfied?"

"I guess."

"Now, tell me how long you intend on staying. You've been here awhile and I haven't seen you call Mom or Dad once since you've been here."

"Oh, um, a few more days I guess," Goten answered absently. His brow furrowed for a moment before he asked "Um, Gohan? There's one thing I'd like to ask you."

Gohan raised an eyebrow at that. "Shoot."

"Well, when I was at the Westingham Mansion, that guy's wife came down and explained a lot of stuff to me. She also mentioned that you found that bracelet she had been trying to get rid of for a long time."

"Uh huh. And?"

"Well, she also mentioned you impressed her husband with something. What was it?"

"Oh." Gohan began walking in front of the desk, taking a seat in one of the chairs in front of it. "I found his car keys for him."

Goten nearly fell out of the chair. "Keys? That's it? How could that possibly impress him?"

"Well, Krillen usually has a chaffer. Problem was the chaffer was indisposed of at the moment and he was stuck driving himself around. Needless to say, he wasn't used to that arrangement. So there he was standing outside of the courthouse, checking every pocket he had for his keys and trying his best not to swear. I just happened to be around the courthouse at the time when this happened."

"And you were there for what?"

Gohan began scratching the back of his head in embarrassment. "I was looking for clients. Figured a courthouse would be a good place to offer my services. It didn't quite work out that way."

"How many times were you rejected?"

"Four times."

"That's it?"

"Well, I wasn't exactly confident in my social abilities. Kinda made it hard to approach people. And when I did have opportunities, I was brushed aside."

That sounded like the brother he knew. Goten couldn't help but shake his head as he heard this. It was almost hard to believe the guy had actually made a living here considering his problems with social settings. "So you saw Krillen searching for his keys. Where were they?"

"In the ignition."

Goten couldn't help but sweatdrop. "And this was the guy who headed a federal taskforce."

Gohan gave him a small smile. "Incredible, huh?"

"I just don't see how that could have impressed him though."

"Well, I approached him when I saw he was having trouble. I asked him what was wrong, he told me he couldn't find his keys, and I just pointed it out to him. He hadn't even considered that the keys were anywhere other than his coat that it stunned him to find out they were somewhere else."

"And you knew they were there how?"

"Caught sight of them through the window when I walked up to him." A chuckle left his brother's lips. "I'm afraid the story isn't very exciting."

"Yet you somehow used that to become the main detective for the wealthiest family in the city," Goten added. "You have some amazing luck, don't you Gohan?"

Gohan leaned back into his chair, a grin appearing on his face. "Who ever said it was luck?"

* * *

To rocker101: The best line of the story lol

And that's that for Framed. Thank you everyone that read this story and a special thanks to all who read and reviewed it. I really appreciated it. I didn't think it would get nearly as big of a reaction as it did and that was a very pleasant surprise to have.

A lot of this story was inspired by John Grisham's _Rainmaker_. In fact, that book and movie set the tone for what I wanted to do with this story. However, I couldn't get the whole court scene to work in my head—one that had Frieza sitting in as the judge oddly enough—so I ended up changing my plan with this story several chapters in. As one reader pointed out multiple times, it was obvious there were some changes. While I did try to add some changes here and there, trying especially to keep them subtle, it didn't completely work out the way I had hoped. It was definitely a learning experience for me and something to think about for future stories.

But now it's time to move on from this story and onto the next one. As mentioned at the end of Immortal Enemies, I have another project I was working on and that one is taking a bit of time to get through. But it will be the next story I post, I will promise you that. As for my next G/V Week 5.0, the next one I intend to do is the entry that received the most votes, Disastrous Space Adventures.

Once more, thank you all for reading, reviewing, and enjoying the story.

Until next time,

ShadowMajin


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